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Martin Ace

Voiceprint Web Radio talks to Martin Ace, long-time bass player for the British progrock band, Man. Martin discusses Man's concerts over the years and the band's live recordings.

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Catalogue number
VP272CD
Release date
28/07/2003
Format
CD
Label
Voiceprint
Synergy
Reconstructed Artifacts
Disc 1
1. Relay Breakdown 2. Warriors 3. S-Scape 4. Orbit 5 5. Ancestors 6. Flight Of The Looking Glass Metropolitan Suite (abridged) 7. North River 8. Steam & Steel Towers 9. Metropolitan Theme (Main Theme) 10. Into The Abyss

Larry Fast is best known for his series of pioneering electronic music albums recorded under the project name SYNERGY. He is also known for his work with Peter Gabriel, playing synthesizer on records and on tour, and rounding out the production team on many of Peter's albums for nearly a decade.

The shimmering electronic textures of the first SYNERGY album in 1975 led to an invitation for Larry to come to Europe and work with the distinguished British-German band Nektar, then enjoying top 20 success in the US. Following an album ("Recycled") and a tour with Nektar, Larry was contacted by Peter Gabriel who had recently left Genesis. Larry was asked to contribute to Peter's subsequent solo albums and tours. Larry's synthesizer playing is heard on all of Peter's early solo albums, but Peter's breakthrough albums, his third solo record (the one with "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko"), and "Security" ("Shock The Monkey") feature Larry's electronic production skills as well as his introducing Peter to programmable drum machines leading to a newfound emphasis on rhythm in Peter's music.

Larry's production credits show the influence that his control of music technology has had on other artist's styles. All through the 1980's and into the 1990's Larry has worked with an endless stream of world-class artists and producers, and as a producer himself. Artists as diverse as Hall & Oates, Foreigner, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora and David Bryan, Barbra Streisand, Annie Haslam (Renaissance), Randy Newman, Joan Armatrading, MeatLoaf and many others have called on Larry's talents.

RECONSTRUCTED ARTIFACTS is a new collection of recordings made in January and February 2002 of classic, older Synergy pieces from the 1970s and 1980s, newly performed on digital synthesizers and recorded digitally, (see below for the titles). They are completely new recordings and performances.

Reconstructed Artifacts happened as a by product of preparations for a live Synergy appearance at the Alfa-Centauri Electronic Music Festival, Bussum, in the Netherlands in March, 2002. After reconstructing the original analogue patches on turn of the 21st century digital hardware and software synthesizers and relearning the arrangements, it became obvious that making recordings of the completed pieces would be a logical next step.

Reviews

Reconstructed Artifacts is a new album of old tunes; freshly re-recorded pieces from Synergys back catalog. The idea is somewhat strange: after all, Larry Fast has been an important name in analog electronic music, his Synergy project one of the rare non-German acts to leave a mark on the 70s. So why go back and digitally re-record what was the pride of analog synth fans? As questionable the decision may be, the results are convincing, at least in part. Early pieces like Relay Breakdown and Warriors (from {Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra}, 1975) or S-scape (from Sequencer, 1976) sound clearer, better defined, and have more punch -- more so if you compare them to the cheap LP pressings. But again, wouldnt a remix and a remaster be enough, especially since Fast is here very careful to reconstruct the pieces down to every little detail? If Fast achieved excellent results with pieces from his Tangerine Dream-influenced days, his treatment of later tracks is a bit disappointing. The symphonic bombast of the albums Audion (1981) and Metropolitan Suite (1986), which called for more elaborate arrangements, including programmed drums, strings and winds, has lost some of its charm in these digitized renditions. A piece like Into the Abyss screams for a real orchestra, and even the best digital reconstruction canšt change that. For the newcomer (or those who still hold on to their LPs), Reconstructed Artifacts makes a fine best of CD.

Francois Couture, All-Music Guide