Synergy
Computer Experiments Volume One
[Third Contact]
Rating: 1.2
Synergy is the brainchild of electronic synthesis wizard Larry Fast, who
has contributed his keyboard magic to albums from Peter Gabriel, John
Denver, and Kate Bush, among others. Patching modules of old analog
keyboards together as well as creating many of his own instruments
managed to get him not only his own company specializing in such feats,
but praise from Robert Moog himself, for Fast's adaptive reconstruction
of Moog's pioneering keyboards.
Computer Experiments Volume One is a project in which Fast created
an interface between an analog keyboard and a computer. The concept was to
have an artist enter into the computer a specific set of parameters, a defined
set of notes that the computer could use as well as limits on tone
duration, then let the computer compose a song. This sounds exactly
like using pieces of tape to hold down random keys on a slow- attack
sound on a keyboard and letting them go at non- specified intervals.
While the concept gives me fond memories of when I wrote a very similar
program for my Commodore 128 computer in 1986, I think I find myself
wishing more that I could hear my own primitive renditions than what
Fast, under the name Synergy, let loose for three separate recordings in
January of 1980. At least I have some sort of connection with the
Commodore. While the technical challenge may be appealing for anybody
geeky enough to try it, the end result is something you'll keep for
memory's sake, not because you'd ever want to listen to it.
-Skaht Hansen
"The World After April"
[Real Audio Stream]