Here is a sample track from one of the Dead's EPIC shows in 1974, when Bear's Wall of Sound was fully operational and audiences were being blown away by the colossal sound waves emanating from its many towering speakers. But the Wall wasn't made simply to blow the roof off a joint; the Dead's most delicate and sublime musical moments could now be heard in all their acoustical glory, filling the room for people even in the back row to be able to hear and dance on every graceful note. Bold and courageous tapers, like Jerry Moore, were determined to get these legendary sounds on tape, and the glittering sonicscapes they captured was no simple task. / The fruits of Moore's labors can be heard here in a symbiotic relationship with the well-balanced soundboard recording, which together produce a unique aural experience that cannot be derived from either of the recordings alone. By being mixed together in a very specific way, a sonic chemical reaction occurs that produces a new aural creature to be reckoned with. This new audio form - the matrix - contains a heightened level of acoustical energy and resonance that reveals a depth and power to the live sound that was not quite experienced before, except perhaps if one was actually at the show. The matrix is thus a more accurate musical portrait of the band/audience relationship that was so integral to the life of a Grateful Dead concert event, where both parties literally fed off the energy of the other. This acoustical feeding frenzy, in relation to the sound dimensions of the actual room or space, is what the matrix seeks to embody and reproduce, and it touches more decisively on a sustained kind of ecstasy that would occur at a show between the Dead and their fans. / The track presented here, which is Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia's "Ship of Fools" (on Hunter's birthday, no less), is unique in that it is preceded by a soft and lyrical "jam" that reflects the tones and textures of "Ship of Fools", but it is not a formal part of the song. This exquisite musical interlude, skillfully placed after Phil Lesh and Ned Lagin's otherworldly "Seastones" debut, has been quite appropriately called "Setting Sail". The jam, which is really more of a song in itself, conveys a languid feeling of casting off into gentle and cool waters at dawn, only to be met by a cautionary tale of paying allegiance to the wrong kinds of ships at sea.

Setting Sail -> Ship of Fools - 6/23/74 Jai-Alai Fronton - Miami, FL

A matrix is a recording of a live concert that combines the soundboard recording with an audience recording to produce a more ambient and dynamic soundscape.



Setting Sail -> Ship of Fools - 6/23/74 Jai-Alai Fronton - Miami, FL

Hunter's Trix