THIRD CONTACT Third Contact was formed in 1995 to manufacture and reissue Synergy® albums to the public. The then-new World Wide Web provided a perfect outlet to distribute what the mainstream record industry considered a niche act. The web also brought access to Synergy recordings to parts of the globe that never had proper distribution the first time around. The name Third Contact refers to the stage of a solar eclipse where the light of the sun is just beginning to emerge from behind the moon. The original logo design was executed by fellow synthesist/composer Wendy Carlos from original photographs that Wendy had shot during her alternate career as an eclipse chaser. Wendy composited and tidied up the image in Photoshop. (I sat in the back seat giving encouragement while Wendy did the tough graphic work). A minor update to the logo's typography was done in the early 2000s. Third Contact is a boutique label. Physical media (CDs) of SYNERGY recordings on Third Contact are distributed through Alliance/AMPED. Digital distribution for downloads and streaming is managed by A-Train Entertainment. CDs and digital downloads can be bought through most record stores and at all major online vendors. business mail address: THIRD CONTACT PO Box 425 Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922 USA email: thirdcontact@synergy-emusic.com This is also the contact point for inquiries about licensing for third party synchronization uses in other media. A LITTLE HISTORY From 1971 through 1988 Jem Records, Inc. was one of the world's largest importer/exporters and distributors of records. Building on a business of importing and distributing British albums into the United States Jem grew to have office and warehouse locations from London to Los Angeles with the home office in South Plainfield, New Jersey. Jem evolved into a publicly traded company conducting millions of dollars in business each year. In 1973, Jem in association with Sire Records launched Passport Records in order to manufacture and release records from within the United States. The Passport label eventually grew to become the Passport Records Group which included the original flagship Passport label, Passport Jazz, The Audion Recording Company, and several other diverse labels. Larry Fast/SYNERGY was the first US act signed to the new label in 1974. For a variety of reasons too complex to go into here, by the mid-1980s the Jem Records distribution division found itself in difficulty. Though the Passport Records Group was consistently profitable, the parent company was unable to stay afloat and the entire corporation was shut down. After Jem Records went out of business at the end of 1988 taking Passport Records and The Audion Recording Company with it, there was no longer any legitimate release channel for the Synergy recordings. The actual ownership of the intellectual property rights to manufacture and sell new copies of the Synergy albums was in dispute until 1994 when the rights clearly reverted to my production company Synergy® Electronic Music, Inc. During the years between 1989 and 1994 I was contacted quite a few times by labels around the world that wanted to sign Synergy to their company. Third Contact now provides that outlet. The first Synergy re-release, "Electronic Realizations for Rock Orchestra" went into distribution on the web in mid-1995, the twentieth anniversary of the original release. The second re-release "Sequencer" was reissued late in 1996, followed by "Cords" in the summer or 1997. During 1998 manufacturing and distribution was licensed to Universal/PolyGram's Chronicles label. All nine of the original Synergy recordings were reissued through Chronicles during 1998. A tenth album, "Reconstructed Artifacts" was issued separately through Third Contact in 2002. After the Universal/Polygram deal ran its 5 year course in 2002, Third Contact affiliated with the Voiceprint group of labels based in the UK. During this period the first online sales were initiated with the iTunes Store and other outlets. Following a decade with Voiceprint, Third Contact's distribution transferred to eOne in 2013 followed by BFD/SonyRED from 2016-2018. -Larry Fast (updated 2020) SYNERGY HOME PAGE © Synergy® Electronic Music, Inc. Synergy® is a registered US Trademark 052520