ELECTRONIC REALIZATIONS FOR ROCK ORCHESTRA

Larry Fast's debut synergy album claims to be for "rock orchestra", but don't be fooled into thinking of string sections full of guitarists and percussion sections full of budding Keith Moons - instead, the entire album is delivered through the medium of Fast's synthesisers. Playing in a fast, light classical style which draws on the symphonic greats without slavishly reinterpreting the same limited set of standards so many prog keyboardists had worn to death with their electronic arrangements, the overall effect is of the orchestral music of the future - a future given birth to via a Moog.

It's on the strength of this album that Larry was brought in to make key contributions to Nektar's Recycled, lending that album its unique prog-cyberpunk sound. At the same time, it does feel rather a bit like a demonstration of the technical capabilities of the latest generation of synthesisers rather than a sincere artistic statement at points, and on the whole I find Larry Fast's work as a sideman to Nektar or Peter Gabriel somewhat more compelling than this solo work.