Ned Lagin
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| Ned Lagin | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 11, 1949 |
| Origin | San Francisco, United States |
| Genre(s) | Avant-garde, space music |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Keyboard instruments, synthesizer |
| Label(s) | Round RX, Rykodisc |
| Associated acts | Grateful Dead |
Ned Lagin (born June 11, 1949), a graduate of MIT,[1] is an American avant-garde keyboardist.
Lagin was a pioneer in the development and use of minicomputers in real-time stage and studio performance. This included running analogue to digital converters and doing digital signal processing to generate music in the era before digital synthesizers appeared on the market.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Performer with the Grateful Dead
Although often uncredited, Lagin played keyboards at all of the Grateful Dead's live shows performed between June 16, 1974 (Iowa), and June 17, 1975 (San Francisco). During the tours of 1974, his synthesizer performances were featured in a separate set between the Grateful Dead's first and second sets. Drummer Bill Kreutzman and bassist Phil Lesh often jammed with Ned Lagin during these synthesizer space interludes, and sometimes Jerry Garcia played along, with his guitar heavily processed through effects processors. Lagin also appears on the album American Beauty.[2]
[edit] Recording artist
In 1975 Lagin released an album of experimental space music entitled Seastones on Round Records; he described the recording as "Cybernetic biomusic." The album was one of the first commercially released recordings to feature the use of digital computers and the Buchla digital-polyphonic synthesizer.[1] The album was recorded in stereo quadraphonic sound and featured guest performances by members of the Grateful Dead, including Jerry Garcia playing treated guitar and Phil Lesh playing electronic Alembic bass. Members of Jefferson Airplane and CSNY also appear on the album. Seastones was re-released in stereo on CD by Rykodisc in 1991. The CD version includes the original nine-section "Sea Stones" (42:34) from February 1975, and a live, previously unreleased, six-section version (31:05) from December 1975.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Prendrergast, Mark (2000). The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance - the Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age. Bloomsbury Publishing, p 244. ISBN 1582341346.
- ^ Ned Lagin interview with David Gans on KPFA, February 3, 2001
