Customer Reviews

Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I say I often use this album to fall asleep to I mean that as a genuine compliment. One can easily be enveloped in layers of gentle, textured, warm tones of Legacy, only to find by the time one's asleep, the compositions become bolder, creating the perfect soundtrack to the dreamworld of ones making. This was my experience back in 75, when I was an impressionable fifteen, right up to the present. I remember extolling the sonic virtues of Fast's synthesis and how with these compositions of his, and Slaughter On Tenth Avenue, that this disc would hold up a quarter century hence, and lo and behold, here we are. Whereas a lot of electronic music of the seventies, be it Wendy Carlos, Tomita, Jarre, Malcolm Cecil, Roger Powell, et al...still has an icy artifice about it, the warmth of Synergy is both immediate and gratifying for both classical and progressive music fans.

The title of this album, criticized by some, is accurate. This is music realized by a "rock" orchestra. What else to call the battery of electronics that Larry Fast used to bring his compositions to life? A trained composer, an electrical whiz, Fast combined his fine musical sense with the potential of Synthesizers to create new orchestral timbres. No one else in the field of electronic, now or then, has done the same, with the exception of Wendy Carlos, Fast's friend and cohort.

Most people doing electronics fall into the throbbing gristle of sequencers, forgetting that music is more than rythym or effects. Fast's compositions are modern music, and could probably be played by organic instruments and sound good. Most Prog doesn't hold up not because it's Prog, but because the composition and orchestration are not up to standard, unlike Fast's music.

People who listen to this album and think its trance or ambient, are actually getting neo-romantic compositions orchestrated with new sounds. That's what electronic music was supposed to be about. Ah, well. Ah, me. Electronic Realizations still sounds good because Fast knew how to orchestrate, not because analog synths sounded better. (if you ever tried to play a 1972 Minimoog and keep it tuned, you know what I mean.)

If you like this album, check out Larry Fast's "Reconstructed Artifacts," reworkings of his Synergy stuff with modern equipment. Clearer sounds, heavier emphasis on rythyms, but still well-written music. Do another one, Larry, please.

This album to me rates as one of the top 70's analog synthesizer, or electronic music albums. Long ago, I wore my vinyl version out and am overjoyed to see it out again on CD. The creations on this album brought many vivid images to my mind as I first listened to it as they still do today, amost 25 years later. Relay Breakdown is one of the most upbeat, royal sounding tracks I have ever heard, even after all of these years. It will leave you with the same feeling that Copland's Fanfare for a Common Man leaves you...excited, jubulant and charged with energy! Since I first heard it in 1975, it has remained one of my top five favorite tracks.

Warriors changes the mood from royal to ponderous power, as you are lead to feel awesomeness at the immensity of something much larger than yourself. It combines this with a sense of the mysterious, to paint a very rich tapestry of the human pagent.

Synergy is a light-hearted piece that showcases Larry Fast's virtuosity with the Moog synthesizer and then new electronic medium.

Legacy, the first track on the first side is a very powerful and emotional piece that carries with it a sense of urgency in a head long plunge towards a destination not yet known. The second half of the piece is built on opposing scale renditions, with layers upon layers of textured sound that strongly suggest minimalist influence on Larry Fast's composition style. Full of tension, full of power, full of motion, your spirit will ebb and flow like the tide as you get swept up in the cyclone of instrumentation.

Slaughter on 10th Avenue is one of my lesser favorite pieces, being a cover, it carries another's style, though with Larry Fast's usual virtuosity with electronic music and his style. As a teenager with a frustrated former progressive jazz musician for a father, in 1975, this track softened my parents to the Pink Floyd which I soon introduced them to!

Like many of the reviewers here, I first "discovered" Synergy in the mid-70s when his music was still new. As an avid listener of both classical music and progressive rock, I enjoyed his blend of classical construction with rock's sense of transition and rhythm.

I still enjoy this album over a quarter of a century later. It remains both musical and moving; there are numerous moments that are quite heartfelt, like in the ending to Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, the way Warriors presses its second theme, and the almost perfect transition (one of the Great Ones, in fact) in Legacy at about the 6:20 mark.

Though Larry Fast had his moments on subsequent Synergy albums, Electronic Realizations remains my favorite and in consistently the most listenable. I rate it alongside Vangelis's Heaven and Hell and Jean Michel Jarre's Equinoxe as my favorites in the genre (I would place Klaus Schulz, Michael Hoenig, Tangerine Dream, et. al. in a more abstract grouping, as they tend to be less melody-oriented).

If you're looking to explore this branch of music, this album is a great place to start. It won't appeal to everyone, but to those who bother to listen, it offers numerous rewards.

Synergy is actually one man : Larry Fast, well known of Pete Gab's fans. Larry is a true genius in his realm, and his talent deserves to be recognized. ERfRO is his first effort and also his best. This record features five magic tracks, constructed on the same pattern as symphonic pieces, hence the name of the album. There are no drum machines, just various synths creating an ambient music à la Tangerine Dream or Robert Fripp (see my review of Robert's Blessing of tears). All in all, this is a fabulous record, one of the best of its category (i.e. electronic and ambient music), but unfortunately Synergy's following records don't have the same quality. Nonetheless, I recommend it to all synth lovers.

Synergy might sound like a group name, like Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream, but it's actually all the work of Larry Fast, a session musician who worked with artists like Peter Gabriel, Nektar, FM, and even Barbra Streisand, of all people. He also wanted to do work on his own, and so he used the Synergy name for such projects. And Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra is the first in a series of electronic albums from Synergy. Originally released in 1975 on Passport, this album, like a few others released on that label at that time (such as Fireballet's Night on Bald Mountain) boasted how the album was mixed using the Sansui QS 4 channel quad system which never caught on (since, from what I was told, you could only use Sansui to get the quad sound). Now let's get with the music. I could not figure out why the album is called Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra, since it isn't rock, but classically influenced electronic music with a symphonic feel, but still with a very '70s hi-tech sound to it. Larry Fast went off the deep end when it came for electronics: Mellotron, Mini Moog with Oberheim Expander Module, ARP 2600 synth, Oberheim DS-2 Digital sequencer, 360 Systems 20/20 Frequency Shifter, Eventide Clockworks Digital Delay, Galvanic Skin Response Voltage Controller, and many more. It seems like he liked adding all these strange gadgets to his synthesizers. There are only five cuts on this album. "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" is an electronic rendition of a Rodgers & Hammerstein song (if I'm not mistakened) and is excellent. It's the only song on this album not penned by Fast. My very favorite is "Relay Breakdown" which I can easily imagine being used on sci-fi films at that time. Synergy (Larry Fast) was definately one of the pioneers of electronic music, but often overlooked since the titles were out of print for many years (Passport Records went bust by 1988) and you could only get them on LP, until recently. Definately up there with the likes of Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, Tomita, as for as electronic music goes, and if you like that type of music, get Electronic Realizations.

Dave Marsh, the editor of the Rolling Stone Record Guide, referred to this album (and the rest of Synergy's works at the time) as "Truly pompous anti-rock BS".

Well, I'll step up right here to say that it is neither pompous, anti-rock, nor BS. It is actually a symphonic-type work for Moog synthesizers with a 70's Progressive Rock feel. Larry Fast shows himself as a first rate composer with this work, with a expert use of counterpoint. With only the analog instruments available to him at the time, this album must have taken Fast many months to compose, record, and mix. The sound is very LARGE, with textures ranging from lush to explosive to somber. There is one memorable point in the track "Synergy" where two lines of music dance around a single Minimoog tone which ascends from the bottom through the top ranges of the instrument. It is absolutely breathtaking to listen to.

There is really nothing out there to compare it to. It is a bit like Walter Carlos' realizations of Bach's works, but these pieces are original compositions (except for Slaughter on Tenth Avenue). It's never boring--there is not a weak point in it from beginning to end.

I must admit, I have a soft spot in my heart for Electronic Realizations because it is actually the first CD I ever bought (in 1987). That doesn't stop it from being a great album though. After all these years it is still one of my favorites. If you are a fan of Electronic, Progressive, or even Classical Music, I think you may enjoy this album and recognize it for the masterpiece it is.

Even though Synergy has been around since the 70's it is still the best use of analog synthesizers that has EVER occurred. Larry Fast is a genius as far as electronic compositions go. I highly reccomend Synergy to anyone who has a passion for electronic music.

PS. Larry if you read this, write me please.

This was recorded back when synthesizer technology was in its infancy. A cursory listen today reveals that, unlike other early attempts at making synthezised classical music in a rock setting (e.g. Rick Wakeman, Beaver & Krause, and Bo Hansson), this has not dated a bit. It is a testimony to Larry Fast's wizardry with the keyboards that this masterpiece is still as moving as it was back in 1975.

Essentially this is symphonic music performed entirely on electronic instruments. This is best appreciated with the headphones on. This should appeal both to lovers of modern classical music, and progressive rock.

I remember the first time I ever heard Synergy. It was at Griffith Park Observatory Laserium. As good as the light show was. The music was better. I was hooked. The program listed "Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra" and I had to have the album. I have been a Larry Fast fan since. This transfer to CD keeps ALL the intensity of the original Vinyl.