Grateful Dead - Grayfolded (1995/2021)

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Grateful Dead - Grayfolded (1995/2021)

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Grayfolded is a two-CD album produced by John Oswald featuring the Grateful Dead song "Dark Star". Using over a hundred different performances of the song, recorded live between 1968 and 1993, Oswald, using a process he calls "plunderphonics", built, layered, and "folded" all of them to produce two large, recomposed versions, each about one hour long.

The first disc of Grayfolded, titled Transitive Axis, was released in 1994, and the second disc, Mirror Ashes, was released in 1995, both on the Swell/Artifacts label. The two discs were released together in 1996. Grayfolded was re-released by Snapper Music in 1999, and by Fony in 2004. It was released as a three-disc vinyl LP on August 12, 2014, on the Important Records label.

Grayfolded is one of only three Grateful Dead albums that features the participation of every musician who was ever in the group, the others being the box sets So Many Roads (1965–1995) and 30 Trips Around the Sun (as well as the latter's 4-disc version).

back in 1994, when GRAYFOLDED "Transitive Axis" was released as a single CD with its cliffhanger ending, it included this note:

There is in the Grateful Dead repertoire a song so legendary as to often be only referred to as "IT" by dedicated dead heads. The Dead have been playing this song in concert sporadically for a quarter of a century now, often using it as a vehicle for musical travels far beyond the predictable. When Phil Lesh asked me to plunderphonicize the Dead's music, this song seemed to be the obvious place to start. With the invitation of the band I've had the opportunity to comb through the (also legendary) Grateful Dead Vaults and to listen to all the performance recordings of this piece on file. These board mixes are the sources for Gray Folded. I've collected what I think are interesting portions from over a hundred performances, thereby accumulating 40 hours of digital copies of the master tapes. Fifty-one of these performances are featured on Transitive Axis. The music slides back and forth over the years, often shifting from the recent present back to 1969 or the early 70s in the twinkling of an arpeggio. Within this Tralfamadorian time scheme there are some familiar moments and many unique surprises. There are a few appearances by The Grateful Dead Orchestra (multiple Weirs, Leshes, Kreutzmanns etc., all playing together) and the Jerry Garcia Chorus (in which a time shifted Captain Trips is heard harmonizing with himself over the years). For some this disc will conjure specific memories. For others it will reveal how wild and embracing the music of the Grateful Dead can be. —John Oswald. 1994

the following year, with the addition of the 'mirror Ashes" disc to the package, the above note was replaced by Rob Bowman's extensive essay including exclusive Dead interviews, which we are including in the bonuses in pdf form.

bonus materials:
—for the first time ever, the complete 110 minute version of GRAYFOLDED as a direct-from-the-master digital file.
—additional Grayfolded insert and disc art, and the "I want to hear the Light Show" promo flyer.
—10,000 word historical essay.
—two 'radio edit' tracks :"Transitive Axis" & "La Estrella Oscura"
originally released as a promo CD in 1994.
—a brand new version of the formerly secret and well-hidden "Mirror Ashes" zero track.
—exclusive rough mix preview track from the upcoming TRANSITIVE AXIS LIVE album, with a video clip from a rehearsal.