Les Fradkin plays a Starr Labs Ztar MIDI Guitar Controller which he uses to single handedly construct all the backings on his recordings. His MIDI Guitar setup also includes a Fender "George Harrison " "Rocky" Stratocaster MIDI Guitar and a Wilson Bros Ventures Model VM-10 MIDI Guitar with a Roland GK-2A Pickup.
Sequencers include: Ableton Live 7.0.7, MOTU Digital Performer 5.1.3, Apple Logic Pro 8
Les Fradkin endorses the Starr Labs Z7S MIDI Guitar
Les Fradkin endorses the Wilson Bros. Ventures VM-65 and VM-10 Model Guitar
Influences
The Beatles, Jeff Beck, Yes, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, King Crimson, Robert Fripp, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, The Moody Blues, The Move, ELO, The Byrds, Beaver & Krause, Frank Zappa, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Yanni, Robert Moog, Don Buchla, Wendy Carlos, Progressive Rock, Synphonic Rock, J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Mozart, Niccolo Paganinni, Vangelis, The Left Banke, The Ventures and Joe Meek.
Sounds Like
A blend of Space Rock, Progressive Rock, Symphonic and Ambient Textures.
Les Fradkin is one of the guitar legends of the 1970's. As well as being an original member of hit Broadway show "Beatlemania", he has found success as a recording artist, composer and producer with MGM Sunflower, ESP-Disk', Bell, Arista, RCA, and Laurie Records. Les has written the well known French hit "La Chansons Des Souvenirs" ("Song Of A Thousand Voices") for the famous Mireille Mathieu. He has played 12 and 6-string Guitar, Bass, Mellotron, and Piano on dozens of Top 40 hit records throughout the early 1970's , scoring many US and UK chart placings throughout his career.
His 12-string guitar, vocals and production with legendary underground psychedelic folk- rock group,The Godz, resulted in several albums for ESP Disk among which "Pass On This Side" (featuring Les' song "God Bless California"), continues to influence and mentor generations of new musicians to this day.
In 1976, Les was selected over thousands of other auditioning guitarists to appear in the original cast of the smash hit Broadway musical "Beatlemania" playing lead guitar and the part of "George Harrison" in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. Running for two and a half years from May 1977 thru October 1979, every show (including over 1200 in New York alone) was sold out and the musicians quickly became celebrities with magazine cover stories ("Newsweek","Time", "People", "Rolling Stone") and many major television show appearances. With his guitar-playing in the international spotlight from the show, Fradkin developed a cult following that has avidly followed his career and made him a celebrity among guitar fans.
He has enjoyed chart success on the net as well with his songs reaching mp3.com's 1 position 16 times! New Gandy Dancer Rock Magazine named Les' CD "A Day At The Beach" it's 2004 Album Of The Year. In addition, Les has performed with The Ventures as 2nd Lead Guitarist. Nokie Edwards of The Ventures has performed with Les on several occasions and is a featured guest on his "While My Guitar Only Plays" CD. In fact, Les has been acknowledged as a guitar virtuoso for over 30 years and he has been featured in issues of 20th Century Guitar Magazine, Pipeline and New Gandy Dancer Magazines.
Today, Les has released 15 solo CD's on his RRO Entertainment Indie label and has had over 300,000 downloads bringing him several substantial hits on Apple iTunes and other download sites across the Internet.
Les Fradkin and The Ztar
Les Fradkin has been on the cutting edge of Guitar Synthesis since the dawn of MIDI back in 1983. But his experience with synthesis and sampling stretches even further back to 1970 when he began a long and distinguished career as an Artist, Composer, Producer and session Guitarist and Mellotron player in New York City and London.
He's a Guitar Virtuoso and now, a 21st Century music innovator on the Starr Labs Ztar.
In the early 80's, he pioneered the introduction of tapeless MIDI recording with the SynthAxe, Roland Guitar Synthesizer and Yamaha DX7 and TX816 synthesizers recorded with the Yamaha QX1 sequencer and Synclavier 3200 in soap opera music. He also composed and programmed numerous successful jingles and movie soundtracks as well as many game show themes. He worked for Score Productions and ABC TV in New York City, wrote many national jingles (for such products as Cheerios, Campbel's Soup, Nestle's, Crisco,, American Express), 4 movie soundtracks and co wrote, programmed and played on all the music for the soap Opera "One Life To Live" for ABC-TV from 1984 thru 1988. He was the first composer to record entirely "Direct-To-Disk" in New York City. His sonic innovations at that time with the SynthAxe, Synclavier, Yamaha DX7, TX816 Digital Synthesizers and the Yamaha QX1 Sequencer earned him great accolades in the TV industry and established him as "Dr. MIDI." His dramatic ability with Scoring Cues as well as full blown themes blazed a trail that he continues today.
After recording and releasing several successful Guitar Synthesizer Instrumental CD's since 2005, featuring Guitar Pitch to MIDI Technology, Les felt the need to break through existing barriers he had experienced since the dawn of MIDI. Although he once owned and used a SynthAxe MIDI Controller, the company had long ceased doing business and there seemed to be very little to choose from in the way of advanced MIDI control that a virtuso guitarist could play in real time with reliable and predictable results with modern music technology. Always on the lookout for a MIDI Guitar that could track as fast as he could play, he discovered the Starr Labs Ztar in the Summer of 2007 which, unexpectedly, opened up a whole new Universe of performance and expressive possibilities for him as a composer, musician and guitar synthesist.
As a result of acquiring this new instrument, Les has some current work which involves the music and dynamic of Electronic sound as realized from the performance control of the Ztar. Searching for a means that could transport the listener to new realms of experience, he found himself now able to single-handedly orchestrate entire new worlds of sonic tapestry in real time with perfect tracking which were never before possible from previous MIDI Guitar technology. An entirely new merging of mind, heart, and computer technology resulting in new music was now posssible. Using a blend of Space Rock, Progressive Electronic and Neo Classical signposts, Les' new CD "One Link Between Them" opens up a new door to a sound which has thrilled music fans the world over.
New exciting project by Clive Nolan (Arena/Pendragon) and Agnieszka Swita Feat. guest appearances by Alan Reed (Pallas/Neo), Christina Booth (Magenta), John Jowitt (IQ, Neo), Mark Westwood (Neo), Richard West (Threshold) & Scott Higham (Pendragon)
Hello many thanks from France for the add and your kind comment it's a real pleasure to be in the lot of your friends it's a nice day for us Long life at your and our music
All hail.Wowsa wowsa. Love your space by the way. Keep on keepin on. Music taste is sound as pound underground. Which is a ridiculous rhyme. Merci beaucoup for the add and your interest. I thought you might like to know that I have posted new videos for new fusion mixes/ mashes. We are cutting up and smashing around the likes of Coldplay, Leona Lewis, Rhianna, Pixies, Gallows and Muse. There's loads of tunes and video mashes to screw with your brain cells and make you move on the myspace which is being updated with new tunes and vids regularly. Let us know what you think. Love and Peace. SeXDwArF. And remember...don't do genre. It's stereotype by another name.
The latest video posted Young Folks with Umbrella ft Rihanna and Peter, Bjorn and John is below.
