One record at a time: 417. Ed Starink - Synthezier Greatest (The Ultimate Collection)

Unless you are an electronic music uber-geek, the name Eduard Starink probably doesn't mean much to you. And who can blame you? Hell, they didn't even bother to put the man’s name on the front of his records, so it is no wonder few people have heard of him.

You see Ed produced a series of 'sound-a-like' compilation albums that were much like the "Synthesizer" records made by Project D. Yet, aside from a performer credit hidden on the inner sleeve, the main producer of the work was never explicitly stated. From what I can tell, Ed was happy with this arrangement and chose to allow the "Synthesizer Greatest" brand take centre stage. 

I first heard about these albums around 1991 when I stumbled across a very cheap cassette of the first compilation in a shop in Wakefield. I knew exactly what I was buying, so it was no surprise to find that these tracks weren't attempts to remix, extrapolate or create variations on the original work; they were just smudged carbon copies. 

As you might expect, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre compositions are heavily represented in the tracklisting with the usual suspects like Kraftwerk, Art of Noise and Jan Hammer also getting a look in. My musical taste changed quite a bit during the early nineties so the "Synthesizer Greatest" cassette soon began to gather dust and it eventually fell out of my possession.  

Fast forward thirty years and I saw this new compilation released as a limited edition of 1000 individually numbered copies on translucent blue coloured vinyl. Whilst nostalgia drove me to purchase this record, it hasn't driven me to play it very often.

Rather than replicating the tracklisting of the original album, this record labels itself as the "Ultimate Collection" and seems to randomly pick tracks from the first few entries in the series. This is a shame as some of Starink's best efforts seem to have slipped through the net. The impressive rendition of Vangelis's "Hymn" is missing along with the pulsating "Chase" which was originally recorded by Giorgio Moroder. Personally I don't think the theme from "Twin Peaks" represents 'synthesizer music' and I have no idea why a seemingly new rendition of the traditional piano piece "Gympnopédie" deserves inclusion. Something of a mixed bag that is only worth investigating if a wave of nostalgia compels you. 2/5