Metropolitan Suite [Import]

Synergy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 17, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: United States Dist
• ASIN: B00027FUB0
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #166,676 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

The man behind Synergy is Larry Fast a native of New Jersey who was to have a far-reaching effect on the use of synthesizers in rock music during the seventies and eighties. Larry Fast first came to prominence with the release of the debut album from Synergy called Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra in 1975. Prior to the release of Synergy’s debut Larry Fast had been at college. Initially Larry trained as a violinist and pianist before entering college and taking a few computer science courses. It was during this period that Fat became interested in synthesized music and began to build his own synthesizers. At this time he was introduced to Rick Wakeman at a local radio station and both musicians enjoyed an immediate rapport with Larry Fast interesting Rick Wakeman in his home made instruments and his customizing of existing synthesizers. He was invited over to England to assist with the synthesizers on the Yes album Tales From Topographic Oceans. Shortly after this Larry Fast gained a record contract, which saw the beginning of Synergy and the subsequent release of the debut album which received plaudits from no lesser person than Robert Moog himself who at the time claimed the album to be "the most important recording using his Moog synthesizer". Soon after the release of the debut Synergy album Larry Fast was introduced to Peter Gabriel who at the time had just left Genesis to embark on a solo career and Larry was invited by Gabriel to help with the synthesizer work on Peter’s series of self titled solo albums. During this time Larry also worked as part of Peter Gabriel’s live band and performed on many sessions for diverse artists including Foreigner, Kate Bush, Art Garfunkel, Hall and Oates and The Fugees in addition to recording and releasing albums with Synergy. During the eighties Larry Fast also moved into film work scoring the films About Last Night and Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Product Description

Metropolitan Suite comes from 1987 and is Larry’s take on New York. The album is made up of nine tracks of which five are taken up with the Metroplitan Suite itself which offers musical sketches of New York through different periods in it’s history. As with all the re issues in this re issue series the album has been re mastered for release and contains sleeve notes by Larry Fast.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Larry's Finest Work, March 18, 2007

By 

J.R. (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Metropolitan Suite (Audio CD)

Ah, electronic music! Quite possibly the most misunderstood music form.

That's the problem, isn't it? Today you mention Electronic Music and most everyone assumes that you're talking about techno, trance or any of the other so-called "modern" music forms who's composers employ synthesizers(mostly softwared based) as their main instruments.

The casual music fan hears or reads about Larry Fast being an electronic music pioneer and they probably expect to hear early Tangerine Dream or Jean Michel Jarre(both of whom contributed GREATLY to modern dance music). The reviewer that highlighted the missing "filter sweeps" from Metropolitan Suite proves to me that some listeners have NO CLUE to what Larry was trying to do.

Synergy is NOT dance music, so please don't expect filter sweeps and pleeps, pops and vocoders. Fast's solo Synergy projects have never been about tricks and gimmicks. He's focused, from the very start of his carreer, on creating symphonic simulations using synthesizers. His seminal Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra is one of the most important recordings in the history of electronic music.

To classify MS as "80s New Age music" is an insult to Larry Fast and everything he stands for. Larry is one of THE MOST influential artists in the history of modern music and Metropolitan Suite is his magnum opus.

You will reap the recording's full and intended impact if you live in a large city and have an opportunity to listen to the CD on head phones while walking around and viewing the skyscrapers. The genius of Larry Fast will hit you square between the ears!

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It IS necessarily so..., February 16, 2001

By 

R. L. MILLER (FT LAUDERDALE FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Metropolitan Suite (Audio CD)

Larry Fast's magnum opus was saved for last--"Metropolitan Suite". I'm not going to deny its Copland and Gershwin influences, and probably neither would he. For all of its derivative nature, we have a great 5-movement work here--the Gershwin comes in the form of its recurring theme that sounds like something out of "Porgy and Bess". Other notable pieces are "Prairie Light", which has a Richard Burmer style melodic New Age feel, and "Redstone", whose Fender Telecaster guitar timbres not only serve as a nostalgia trip through '60s surf rock, but suggest that Fast may well have written the synth patch on his handmade synths that I take for granted on my Yamaha TX module.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best and the last, May 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Metropolitan Suite (Audio CD)

A musical story by the inventor of truly musical electronic music. Don't miss the re-release CDs of all the Synergy albums on the "Third Contact" label. This music never gets old.