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Jamal Mohamed: percussion
Jamal Mohamed has been a featured artist in many international music events, including festivals in Europe, Egypt, Korea, Puerto Rico, Canada and Mexico. Jamal was born in Lebanon and grew up in the Chicago area, where he was exposed to rich blues and jazz traditions as well as the Middle Eastern music he heard at home. Known for his virtuosity on the doumbek, Jamal has incorporated many innovative Jazz and Latin styles with this ancient instrument. He designs and builds many of the instruments he plays and has worked extensively in dance, theater, film, and music therapy.
Sting, Simon Shaheen, Mark O'Connor and Trichy Sankaran are among the many artists Jamal has performed with and his music has been featured on recordings for the television documentaries "Ramses the Great", National Geographic's "Lions of Darkness", and the film biography of Robert Johnson, "Can't You Hear the Wind", starring Danny Glover and Keb' Mo'. He has presented percussion clinics at Berklee College of Music in Boston, the University of North Texas, the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and the National Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico City. Jamal is currently a percussion instructor and dance musician at Southern Methodist University, Meadows School of the Arts, and performs with the World Music group "Brahma", the Middle Eastern Jazz ensemble "Beledi", and the percussion group "D-Drum". Jamal lives in Dallas, Texas.
Ken Field: flutes
Ken Field is a saxophonist, flautist, percussionist, and composer. He has performed in the US, Canada, France, Spain, and Japan, and has been Composer-in-Residence at the Ucross Foundation (Wyoming) and the Fundac’on Valpara’so (Spain). He has been a member of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic since 1988. Ken has released two solo CDs of his layered saxophone compositions, and most recently released a live recording of an improvised concert he performed in Tokyo with three Japanese musicians he had never met. He has performed for President Bill Clinton and with J. Geils vocalist Peter Wolf, and is currently producing a CD by Boston singer-songwriter Adam Sherman. Ken's music is also heard regularly on Sesame Street. Ken lives in Cambridge, MA.
Matthew G Davidson: synths, voices, ebow, guitar, warr guitar, percussion
Matthew Davidson is best known for his Blue Forest Mass CD which debuted at #3 on the NAV top 50 and resided in the Lycos Listening Room top 10 for over a year. He continues to write music for film, video and a diverse collection of corporate clients. Matthew lives in Cambridge, MA with his wife and two cats.
Gunnard Nyman Doboze: clarinet, duduk
Gunnard Doboze has been playing music for over 25 years. A Classicaly trained clarinetist who also plays a variety of wind instruments including the duduk, his musical experience has encompassed both classical music as well as jazz. In addition he has produced and composed, and performed a wide variety of music for Film, theater, and dance. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Music from the Berklee College of music. Gunn lives is Somerville, MA.
Dave DeMarco: baritone guitar, bass
Dave DeMarco is a freelance bassist living in Baltimore, MD. He has become somewhat of a multi-instrumentalist having studied piano, drums, tympani, marimba and vibes at The Peabody Institute in Baltimore and later at Boston’s Berklee College of Music where he was a Music Synthesis major. He has since added cello and baritone guitar to his schizophrenic palette. Dave has appeared on numerous recordings as both a leader and a sideman and performs regularly with a variety of projects between Baltimore and NYC. He has previously worked with Swedish guitarist Flavia Canel and is currently with the band Battery Apple. Dave can be contacted via his website.
Flavio Gaete: viola
Flavio Gaete is a composer, violist, and electronic/computer music performer. Equally at home performing both classical and pop music, Flavio has worked on various projects including sound installations, music for film, and proofreading Richard Boulanger's 'The CSound Book', published by MIT press. Flavio has earned degrees from Boston University (MM in viola performance) and Berklee College of Music (BM in music synthesis). Born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1976, Flavio currently lives in Boston, MA.
Larry Fast: synthesizers
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.
Starting with the first SYNERGY album, "Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra" recorded in 1975, and through the most recent SYNERGY release in the late 1980's, Larry's nine albums of electronic music have been on the cutting edge of studio production techniques and the development of new music technologies. And, of course, respect for the music composition and arrangements heard on the SYNERGY albums have led to wide-ranging work with a variety of artists in many styles over the years.
New, digitally remastered CD versions of all nine SYNERGY were reissued by Universal/PolyGram's Chronicles label in 1998.
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 new-found 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's Renaissance, Randy Newman, Joan Armatrading, Meat Loaf and many others have called on Larry's talents. Electronic orchestrations for actress Helen Schneider's Kurt Weill retrospective, and new-age act Shadowfax's premier album give a hint at the scope of Larry's electronic production skills. In recognition of this expertise as well as being an electronic arranger and sound consultant, Larry Fast/SYNERGY has been the recipient of Keyboard Magazine's annual award for Best Synthesist.
In the late 1980s Larry Fast also served as the A&R coordinator and executive producer for The Audion Recording Company, the legendary electronic music label. Over twenty-five albums were recorded and released during a three year period before he resigned to allow more time for his own projects outside of the label. More recently, the newly established Third Contact media label is reissuing Synergy CDs which are available for sale over the World Wide Web.
Recent projects have included new albums by former Peter-Gabriel bandmate Tony Levin, and acting as co-writer and producer with Annie Haslam. Appearances on tour with Tony Levin in 2000 introduced, thanks to advanced music-computer technology, the first live performances of Synergy pieces, 25 years after Synergy made its studio-only debut.
Recent commissions include new compositions for XM Satellite Radio and the Walt Disney Company. Larry lives in New Jersey.
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