Lawrence Roger Fast (born December 10, 1951) is an American

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

player and composer. He is best known for his 1975–1987 series of synthesizer music albums (''Synergy'') and for his contributions to a number of popular music acts, including

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...

, Foreigner,

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Bonnie Tyler Gaynor Sullivan (née Hopkins; born 8 June 1951), known professionally as Bonnie Tyler, is a Welsh singer who is known for her distinctive husky voice. Tyler came to prominence with the release of her 1977 album '' The World Starts Tonight'' a ...

, and

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Biography

Fast grew up in

Livingston, New Jersey Livingston is a township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 29,366, reflecting an increase of 1,975 (+7.2%) from the ...

and attended

Lafayette College Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college in Easton, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter and other citizens in Easton, the college first held classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the college after General Laf ...

in Pennsylvania, where he obtained a degree in History. There he took his previous training in piano and violin and melded them with computer science to become interested in synthesized music and to build his own primitive sound-making electronic devices. He was introduced to

Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...

, the keyboard player from the band

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...

, during a local radio interview, and traveled to the UK to work with Yes on their 1974 album ''

Tales from Topographic Oceans ''Tales from Topographic Oceans'' is the sixth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 7 December 1973 by Atlantic Records. It is their first studio album to feature drummer Alan White, who had replaced Bill Bruford in ...

''. It was there that he got a recording contract with Passport Records.

The Synergy project

Fast recorded a series of pioneering synthesizer music albums under the project name Synergy. The first album in the series, ''Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra'', was released as an LP in 1975. Like the following albums in the series, it exclusively made use of synthesizers and electronic instruments. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Fast released eight more Synergy LPs on

Passport Records Passport Records was a U.S.-based independent record label that existed between 1973 and 1988. It was notable for popularizing such artists as Larry Fast, FM, Richard Barone, and Wendy O. Williams. It was distributed by Jem Records in the United ...

, all of which were later re-released on CDs. The 1998 remastered re-release of ''Semi-Conductor'', a compilation album originally released in 1984, contained ten additional tracks. The eleventh album in the series, ''Reconstructed Artifacts'', was released in 2003; it contained completely new performances of select compositions from the previous albums, using modern digital synthesizers as well as new digital recording technologies. At least two tracks from the album ''Audion'' (1981) were used as the basis for music in

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

computer games:

Rob Hubbard Rob Hubbard (born 1955 in Kingston upon Hull, England) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, such as the Commodore 64. Early life Hubbard first started playing music at age seve ...

's scores for the C64 version of ''

Zoids , or simply , is a Japanese science fiction media franchise created by Tomy that feature giant robots (or "mecha") called "Zoids". A Zoid is essentially a large mechanical animal, with designs being based on animals; including dinosaurs, insect ...

'' and ''

Master of Magic ''Master of Magic'' is a single-player, fantasy turn-based 4X strategy game in which the player plays as a wizard attempting to dominate two linked worlds. From a small settlement, the player manages resources, builds cities and armies, and r ...

'', which were unofficial partial-covers of songs ''Ancestors'' and ''Shibolet''. Synergy's first album states "..and nobody played guitar." The second album, Sequencer, says "...and still no guitars." These are rumored to be a tongue-in-cheek response to statements that appeared on albums by the rock group

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

that they used no synthesizers, which were made to inform listeners who assumed otherwise. Fast's third Synergy album, Cords, states "Finally, guitars...sort of," which references the use of a Russ Hamm

Guitar Synthesizer A guitar synthesizer is any one of a number of musical instrument systems that allow a guitarist to access synthesizer capabilities. Overview Today's guitar synths are direct descendants of 1970s devices from manufacturers (often in partner ...

played by Pete Sobel. In August 2013, after several years of no releases, "Tower Indigo" was released on the

Projekt Records Projekt is a Portland, Oregon-based independent record label started by Sam Rosenthal in 1983. Projekt releases music in the styles of darkwave, ambient, shoegaze, gothic rock, ethereal, dream-pop, and dark cabaret. Projekt artists include Sam ...

compilation ''Possibilities of Circumstance''. The Synergy albums are: * 1975: ''Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra'' No 66 ''Billboard'' 200 (18 weeks) * 1976: ''Sequencer'' No 144 ''Billboard'' 200 (11 weeks) * 1978: ''Cords'' No 146 ''Billboard'' 200 (6 weeks) * 1979: ''Games'' * 1981: ''Audion'' * 1981: ''Computer Experiments, Volume One'' * 1982: ''The Jupiter Menace'' (soundtrack for film ''The Jupiter Menace'') * 1984: ''Semi-Conductor'' (compilation containing two new tracks) * 1987: ''

Metropolitan Suite ''Metropolitan Suite'' is an album by electronic music composer Larry Fast, released in 1987 through Audion Records. It is the ninth and final record in his Synergy project. Track listing Personnel *Murray Brenman – illustrations, ...

'' * 1998: ''Semi-Conductor, Release 2'' (re-release of ''Semi-Conductor'', remastered and containing ten additional tracks) * 2003: ''Reconstructed Artifacts'' (compilation consisting of re-recorded versions of old tracks) Fast has been developing a new Synergy album. This will be his first studio album of new material in over twenty years. According to Fast's website, it will use primarily

software synthesizer A software synthesizer or softsynth is a computer program that generates digital audio, usually for music. Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the sam ...

s (one of which is, fittingly, Sample Logic's Synergy synthesizer) rather than the hardware he had been using. He has amassed new thematic material for the album and also plans to rework old and unreleased pieces.

Other music projects

In addition to the ''Synergy'' albums, Fast made contributions to musical projects headed by other people: * Worked sporadically with

, providing much of the dominating synthesizers on their 1975 album ''

Recycled Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the p ...

''. * Also known for his work with

. He played synthesizer on records and on tour, and rounded out the production team on Gabriel's albums from 1976 to 1986. He recorded parts for ''So,'' but these were not used. * Contributed to the 1977 concept album ''

Intergalactic Touring Band The Intergalactic Touring Band (IGTB) was not an actual music group but rather a science fiction pop music concept album released in 1977 by the now defunct Passport Records in America and Charisma Records in England. The ensemble album featur ...

'' on Passport Records. * Played the Prophet Synthesizer on

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...

's 1980 Album ''

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'' * Produced Canadian progressive rock group FM's 1980 album '' City of Fear''. * Contributed music to the

Carl Sagan Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ext ...

1980 television program '' Cosmos: A Personal Voyage''. * Provided additional synthesizers on Foreigner's 1981 album '' 4'' and Foreigner's 1984 album ''

Agent Provocateur An agent provocateur () is a person who commits, or who acts to entice another person to commit, an illegal or rash act or falsely implicate them in partaking in an illegal act, so as to ruin the reputation of, or entice legal action against, the ...

''. * Played synthesizers on the 1983

single "

Total Eclipse of the Heart "Total Eclipse of the Heart" is a song recorded by Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler. It was written and produced by Jim Steinman, and released on Tyler's fifth studio album, ''Faster Than the Speed of Night'' (1983). The song was released as a single b ...

". * Collaborated on the 1980s pop music project Iam Siam, which produced the hit "She Went Pop". * Produced and performed synthesizer on Annie Haslam's 1989 release ''

Annie Haslam Annie Haslam (born 8 June 1947) is an English vocalist, songwriter and painter. She is best known as the lead singer of progressive rock band Renaissance since 1971, and for her long and diverse solo singing career. She has a five-octave vocal r ...

''. * Along with

David Bryan David Bryan Rashbaum (born February 7, 1962) is an American musician and songwriter, best known as the keyboard player for the rock band Bon Jovi, with which he also co-wrote songs and performed backing vocals. In 2018, Bryan was inducted into ...

composed, arranged, and performed the score music to the 1992 film ''

Netherworld Netherworld (''nether'', ″beneath, lower″) may refer to: *Underworld, a region thought to be beneath the surface of the world in many religions and mythologies Film and television * ''Netherworld'' (film), a 1992 American horror film *''Nethe ...

''. * Helped create the music for

Tokyo DisneySea is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort located in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, just next to Tokyo. It opened on 4 September 2001, at a cost of 335 billion yen. The Oriental Land Company owns the park, and licenses intellectual proper ...

, a new Walt Disney theme park. * Toured and recorded with bassist

Tony Levin Anthony Frederick Levin (born June 6, 1946) is an American musician and composer, specializing in electric bass, Chapman Stick and upright bass. He also sings and plays synthesizer. Levin is best known for his work with King Crimson (since 198 ...

(himself an alumnus of Peter Gabriel's band) as part of Levin's

Waters of Eden ''Waters of Eden'' is Tony Levin's second solo album, released in 2000. Most of the tracks feature a quartet of Levin, keyboardist Larry Fast, guitarist Jeff Pevar, and drummer Jerry Marotta. Additional musicians who appear throughout the album ...

band. * Toured with the Tony Levin Band in 2006.

Other interests

Fast has done some work with designing listening devices for the hearing disabled; his wife had been working in the field for some time. Fast owns several patents for audio distribution using infrared optical technologies. Fast is also part of a government group aiming to protect some of

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

's historic assets against developers.

Biography

The Synergy project

Other music projects

Other interests

References

External links