About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota 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 will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

String Patch Modified with Filter Sweep

Posted on March 19, 2011 by John CS Keston

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I created this patch today by starting with a typical string setting on the synth that I can’t keep my hands off of late, reworking the envelopes, and adding a slow, resonant filter sweep. After playing with it a or a while it reminds me a little bit of a sitar sound, which is coincidental because I was listening to Ravi Shankar records shortly after making the patch.

String Patch Modified with Filter Sweep

Electric Independence: Ulrich Schnauss

Posted on March 19, 2011 by John CS Keston

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The latest from the excellent series, Electric Independence, is an interview with German electronic music producer Ulrich Schnauss.

Execute Rogue Citizen with Music by Ostraka

Posted on March 18, 2011 by John CS Keston

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Tonight I am honored to be performing during the opening night of Execute Rogue Citizen. I have a lot of time to fill during the opening, so as well as performing the latest Ostraka material, I’ll be playing the newly mastered yet unreleased Ostracon (John Keston and Graham O’Brien) album, Unauthorized Modifications, and a recent bootleg of DGK from Try This at the Slam Factory. The City Pages writes,

“Execute Rogue Citizen” will be on display at Gallery 13 until April 1. The opening reception, Incarceration, will be this Friday night and features music by Ostraka starting at 7:30 p.m.

The closing in two weeks, Reprieve, will feature the music of Seawhores. All the art that has gone unsold during the show’s run will literally be executed. By doing this, Rogue Citizen hopes to acknowledge the way the system benefits only those who can afford it.

Let’s hope there will be no art leftover on execution night. Created by science-fiction nerds who love to paint the abnormal, Rogue Citizen’s work is much too nifty to get tossed, even if it is to make a valid point on our current social system.

Here’s an excerpt from a track a produced today that I’ll be performing in my Ostraka set tonight. All the sounds in this piece were made with the Roland Super Jupiter MKS-80 apart from the drums.

Execute Rogue Citizen by Ostraka

Shinny, Watery, Wet and Sticky MKS-80 Microtrack

Posted on March 17, 2011 by John CS Keston

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I recorded this collection of arpeggiated notes as they poured out of the Roland Super Jupiter MKS-80 while I manipulated the controls in real-time. A lot of it ended up on the cutting room floor, but I’m pretty fond of these last two minutes forty seven seconds. I dipped it in a vat of reverb and delay before presenting it here for your enjoyment.

Delayed and Reverbed MKS-80

Mad Marimba

Posted on March 16, 2011 by John CS Keston

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