This deluxe 2025 vinyl edition of The Grateful Dead's Grayfolded was pressed at Optimal in Germany, known for their high-end audiophile pressings. In 1993 Canadian composer John Oswald was invited by Phil Lesh to transform historical recordings of the Dead into something new, along the lines of what they had attempted in their Anthem of the Sun album. Oswald chose to focus on the Dead's Dark Star, which, over the course of a quarter century, they had expanded and transformed in myriad ways in live performances. Oswald was given access to the Vaults, where over the course of a month, with the guidance of the Dead's resident archivist Dick Latvala, he collected 105 performances, which through the following year he formed, folded, fondled, and finessed into a kaleidoscopic unstuck-in-time documentary of the Grateful Dead in some of their most psychedelic, symphonic, and rocking excursions -- a singular 110-minute fantasy performance. Here it is, Deadheads, the ultimate Dark Star. Deluxe audiophile pressing cut in Toronto under the watchful ears of John Oswald. Elaborately printed packaging in a heavy-duty triple gatefold jacket includes liner notes by musicologist Rob Bowman featuring interviews with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, and Robert Hunter plus six "time maps" which chart the source concerts of Dark Star. Music performed by The Grateful Dead (c) Grateful Dead Productions Inc. & Ice Nine Publishing Inc. Taken from over 100 performances of Dark Star recorded between 1968 and 1993. Built, layered and "folded" to produce one large, new re-composed Dark Star. Original recordings of the Grateful Dead in performance have been processed using Plunderphonic techniques. John Oswald is best known as the creator of the music genre Plunderphonics, an appropriative form of recording studio creation which he began to develop in the late sixties. This has got him in trouble with, and also generated invitations from major record labels and musical icons. Meanwhile, in the '90s he began, with several commissions from the Kronos Quartet, to compose scores for classical musicians and orchestras, the latest of which is an orchestral work, commissioned by the BBC, combining aspects of The Beatles, Gyrgy Ligeti, and Terry Riley. He also improvises on the saxophone in various settings, dances, and is a successful visual artist, best known for the chronophotic series Stillnessence.
