''Seastones'' is an album by American composer and musician Ned Lagin. In 1975 Lagin released the

quadraphonic Quadraphonic (or quadrophonic and sometimes quadrasonic) sound – equivalent to what is now called 4.0 surround sound – uses four audio channels in which speakers are positioned at the four corners of a listening space. The system allows for th ...

album of

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroa ...

, (composed between 1970–1974), a small part of the complete ''Seastones'' composition, on

Round Records In 1973, the Grateful Dead established their own record label, Grateful Dead Records. The band released four vinyl record, vinyl LPs on the label in the mid-1970s: ''Wake of the Flood'' in 1973, ''From the Mars Hotel'' in 1974, ''Blues for Allah ...

and then

United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1959, ...

.The Deadhead's Taping Compendium, Volume II: An In-Depth Guide to the Music of the Grateful Dead on Tape, 1975–1985 – by Michael M. Getz, John R. Dwork, Henry Holt and Company, New York; 1st edition (August 2, 1999). A new, two-CD album of ''Seastones'' was released on March 8, 2018.

Composition

Lagin composed ''Seastones'' over the course of five years. It was recorded and mixed in just as many studios, and mastered at a sixth. Much of the album consists of electronically processed traditional instruments and voice, and a cadre of synthesizers (a custom

E-mu E-mu Systems was a software synthesizer, audio interface, MIDI interface, and MIDI keyboard manufacturer. Founded in 1971 as a synthesizer maker, E-mu was a pioneer in samplers, sample-based drum machines and low-cost digital sampling music ...

Modular Synthesizer controlled by and processed through then-cutting-edge computer technology, with software patches and compositions by Lagin; an ARP 2500 and ARP 2600; and a Buchla Modular System). The early computers employed by Lagin included an

Interdata Interdata, Inc., was a computer company, founded in 1966 by a former Electronic Associates engineer, Daniel Sinnott, and was based in Oceanport, New Jersey. The company produced a line of 16- and 32-bit minicomputers that were loosely based o ...

7/16 computer with a high speed arithmetic logic unit and magnetic core memory; an

Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibil ...

microprocessor system built by Lagin; and at the beginning of 1975 an Altair 8800. The computer-controlled systems was designed and built for group live performance, with the performers' instruments and voices routed through analog and digital synthesis and processing hardware. ''Seastones'' was one of the first commercially released recordings to feature the use of digital computers, and Lagin was the first to perform on stage live with computers.Douglas Kahn, "Between a Bach and a Bard Place: Productive Constraint in Early Computer Arts" in MediaArtHistories, edited by Oliver Grau, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2010. pg. 441. It was also a very early instance of multiple musicians' audio and control signals being interconnected before MIDI.Ned Lagin interview with David Gans, August 2001 in: Gans, David. Conversations with the Dead, The Grateful Dead Interview Book, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2002. pp. 343–389.

Production

The album was mixed in quadraphonic sound, released in quad-encoded stereo, and featured guest performances by members of the Grateful Dead, including Jerry Garcia playing processed electric and pedal steel guitars, and voice; Phil Lesh playing electronic Alembic bass; and Mickey Hart on processed percussion.

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (born August 14, 1941) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. Crosby joined the Byrds in 1964. They got ...

(processed voice and electric 12-string guitar), and members of the Jefferson Airplane

Grace Slick Grace Slick (born Grace Barnett Wing; October 30, 1939) is an American singer-songwriter, artist, and painter. Slick was a key figure in San Francisco's early psychedelic music scene in the mid-1960s. With a music career spanning four decades, ...

(processed voice),

Spencer Dryden Spencer Charles Dryden (April 7, 1938 – January 11, 2005) was an American musician best known as the drummer for Jefferson Airplane and New Riders of the Purple Sage. He also played with Dinosaurs, and the Ashes (later known as the Peanut B ...

(processed percussion), and

David Freiberg David Freiberg ( ; born August 24, 1938) is an American musician best known for contributing vocals, keyboards, electric bass, rhythm guitar, viola and percussion as a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane, and Jefferson ...

(processed voice) also appear on the album. ''Seastones'' was re-released in stereo on CD by Rykodisc in 1990. The CD version includes the original Round Records nine-section ''Seastones'' (42:34) from February 1975, and a previously unreleased, six-section version (31:05) from December 1975. Both are partial versions of the full composition, which has not been released. Other unreleased Lagin ''Seastones''-related compositions from the same period include ''L'' and ''Make a Cat Laugh''. A new, two CD album of ''Seastones'' was released on March 8, 2018. This album, not a re-issue, presents most but not all of the composition as originally composed but never released or heard before. For this release, ''Seastones'' was re-mixed and re-mastered in stereo. It includes most of the original 1970–1974 studio forms, those parts of Lagin's concurrent but unfinished composition ''L'' that are shared with ''Seastones'', as well as some of the moment forms generated and incorporated into the composition from live performances that took place from 1973 to 1975. This two CD album contains 83 tracks (54 tracks on CD One and 29 tracks on CD Two) and altogether is 111 minutes long.

Live performances

Ned Lagin performed versions of ''Seastones'' with Phil Lesh and with other members of the Grateful Dead at 23 Grateful Dead concerts between June 23, 1974 in Miami and October 20, 1974 in San Francisco. These took place typically between the first and second sets of the regular Grateful Dead shows. At some concerts, ''Seastones'' would form an entire set, and at other shows it would segue into Grateful Dead songs such as "Playing in the Band" or "Dark Star". There were five live performances of ''Seastones'' that occurred outside of Grateful Dead shows: November 28, 1973, June 6, 1975, September 19, 1975, November 15, 1975, and November 22, 1975.''Seastones'' entry in ''The Compleat Grateful Dead Discography'' http://tcgdd.freeyellow.com . Retrieved September 23, 2013.

Critical reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, Steven McDonald said, "In short, ''Seastones'' is electronic music of the best kind — a shifting sonic landscape out of which the strangest things may emerge."

Personnel

;Musicians * Ned Lagin –

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...

, organ,

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Works for p ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, synthesizers, computers * Phil Lesh –

electric bass The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and s ...

* Jerry Garcia –

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

, voice *

–

electric twelve-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in ...

, voice *

– voice *

– voice * Mickey Hart – percussion *

– percussion ;Production *Produced by Ned Lagin *Engineering (1975): Betty Cantor, Bob Matthews, Bill Wolf *Engineering (1990): Allen Sudduth, John Cutler, Peter Norman *Computer composition software (1975): Ned Lagin *Computer interface and polyphonic keyboard software (1975): Scott Wedge *Cover artwork (1975, 1990): Ruth Poland *Photography (1990): Sal Busalacchi, Ned Lagin

References

External links

*
''Seastones'' album notes
{{Authority control 1975 debut albums Ned Lagin albums Rounder Records albums Rykodisc albums United Artists Records albums