Anthony Cox, Suwal Singh, and John CS Keston at Berlin, Minneapolis

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On May 15, 2025 I will be performing at Berlin, Minneapolis with world-renowned jazz/genre-spanning artist Anthony Cox and Suwal Singh on tabla for an evening of short solos and duets and a full-length trio set. For my part I will be playing the house Steinway though a modular skiff that I have setup to sample/resample and process the piano.

That skiff has changed slightly from what I’ve been using for the first few examples, but it is still yielding satisfying textures for me. More about the event is below or visit berlinmpls.com/calendar/cox-keston-singh. In addition a radio piece by Philip Nusbaum was aired on Jazz88 (KBEM 88.5), Minneapolis and archived here.

World-renowned jazz/genre-spanning artist Anthony Cox will team up with award-winning music technologist John C.S. Keston on piano/modular synth and Suwal Singh on tabla for an evening of discovery. Short solos and duets from the musicians will evolve into a full-length trio set of creative collaboration.

Anthony Cox is an internationally renowned arranger, composer, performer, recording artist, and educator. His career has spanned over 30 years of music education, composition, and performance, encompassing an extensive list of collaborations, performances, and recordings with notable artists in the field of jazz. The list includes Sam Rivers, Joe Lovano, Geri Allen, Kenny Wheeler, Ed Blackwell, Billy Higgins, John Scofield, The NDR Big Band, Dino Saluzzi, and Henry Threadgill.

John C.S. Keston’s background in music technology, software development, and improvisation leads him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery through the use of graphic scores, generative techniques, sound synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Originally from the United Kingdom, he currently resides in Minneapolis, where he is a professor of digital media arts at the University of St. Thomas. He founded the sound design resource AudioCookbook.org, where you can learn more about his projects and performances.

Suwal Singh (tabla, guitar, sarangi) has contributed to the Minnesota music scene as part of projects such as SitarTabla (Eastern classical), Yeti Steady (avant-garde soundscapes), MoMoSauce (Nepali music), and Jest (pop rock). He has also worked as a session musician with Nathan Hanson, Brian Roessler, Eric Carranza, Colleen Buckman, and Dave Mehling and has appeared at Icehouse, the Varsity Theater, the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Bedlam Theatre, St. Paul Art Crawl, AZ Gallery, KFAI, the Capri Theater, MN Yoga Conference, and Jazz Central Studios.

ACB Live Volume 6: Erik Tinberg

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ACB Live Volume 6 was lived streamed on Twitch.TV, Wednesday, April 16, 2025 (coincidentally my mum and niece’s birthday). This time around we featured electronic artist, Erik Tinberg. After Erik’s concert I performed Rhodonea in a similar fashion to what I did at the SEAMUS conference last month. The video about is an archive of the event including the performances along with a bit of banter between me and Erik about our concepts and process. Our friend Charles handled the video and streaming duties beautifully.

Video: Rhodonea II at SEAMUS

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This video is a new interpretation of Rhodonea (Rhodonea II) that I performed for SEAMUS (the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the US) at Purdue University on Saturday, March 22, 2025. Attending and performing at the conference was a fantastic experience. I’ll share more about the event in future post.

The animated, generative, graphic score developed with Processing.org sends corresponding MIDI data to one of my favorite electronic instruments of late, the Dirtywave M8. Previously I performed the piece in Ireland at the inaugural Radical Futures conference.

The piece serves as a model of how we might collaborate with near future synthetic entities. Software feeds automated, algorithmic, projected visual cues, tempi, and low frequency oscillations to improvising electronic musicians. The visuals, based on Maurer Roses, suggest melodic, harmonic, and percussive gestures that are modulated by data streaming from the generative animations. Throughout the piece the artist adapts to the familiar yet unpredictable graphic scores and corresponding signals.

Note: please watch in full screen with the lights off and listen on headphones or high fidelity stereo speakers

Tracker Comparison – Polyend Tracker Mini vs Dirtywave m8

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First-time poster so I now seems like the best time to introduce myself. My name is Erik Tinberg – I’m a synthesizer enthusiast and sound design experimenter from Minneapolis, Minnesota. After spending a year with the Polyend Trackers and a few weeks with a Dirtywave m8 I wanted to write up an impartial comparison between the Tracker Mini and the m8 – which I originally posted on my website here. John asked if I’d post it here as well. I’m looking forward to continuing to experiment and participate in the AudioCookBook.

Polyend Tracker Mini and a Dirtywave m8, side by side.

Polyend Tracker Mini and a Dirtywave m8, side by side.

Recently I became enamored with two portable hardware Tracker machines: the Polyend Tracker Mini and the Dirtywave m8. The Mini is the smaller successor to the Polyend Tracker and the predecessor to the Polyend Tracker+. I originally purchased a Polyend Tracker when they were significantly discounted when the Tracker Mini was announced. While I was aware of the Dirtywave m8, I decided to purchase the Tracker for the following reasons:

  • The cost of the m8 was significantly more expensive.
  • The Tracker features a far greater number of dedicated buttons – making it appear more immediately usable.

Continue reading →

SYNTAX Blu-Ray Disc from Æther Sound

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Our generative, animated, graphic score, performance project SYNTAX in collaboration with Mike Hodnick (aka Kindohm) is now available from Æther Sound as a Blu-Ray disc. The Disc contains all eight of our compositions as well as two bonus videos. One from Mike titled n ciom 4 and another from me titled Rhodonea. It all adds up to a total of one hour and fifteen minutes of music with animation.

After performing SYNTAX at The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Limerick, Ireland; New Interfaces for Musical Expression or NIME; The Performing Media Festival, South Bend, IN; The Int. Digital Media Arts conference, Winona, MN; and venues in Minneapolis and Kalamazoo I’m excited that we can share these works on physical media. Video excerpts are available on YouTube (see below), but the Blu-Ray disc is the only way to experience high-fidelity, full-length studio versions of this project. Learn more about SYNTAX here or buy the Blu-Ray from Æther Sound here.