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.

Thick and Wet Bass Synth

Posted on March 15, 2011 by John CS Keston

I programmed this bass patch on the MKS-80 today. Please listen at high volume through an inappropriately large speaker system. Laptop speakers will not reproduce this properly.

DGK Slam Factory Bootleg in Full

Posted on March 14, 2011 by John CS Keston

DGK is Jon Davis on bass and bass clarinet, Tim Glenn on drums, and John Keston (that’s me) on Rhodes and Pro-One. In yesterday’s entry I included a segment from our set at the Slam Factory on February 25, 2011. As promised, here is the entire one hour, twelve minute, and eleven second recording.

DGK Slam Factory Bootleg, February 25, 2011

UPDATE: This file was replaced with a better mix on March 15, 2011 at 3:02pm CST

Try This: DGK Slam Factory Bootleg and Show Tonight

Posted on March 13, 2011 by John CS Keston

Here’s a segment from a recording made at “Try This” a new series at the Slam Factory in Minneapolis curated by James Hungelmann of my trio DGK (Jon Davis on bass and bass clarinet, Tim Glenn on drums, and John Keston on Rhodes and Pro-One). This set was a pleasure to play. It was a great space with a great audience and amazing hosts. The recording was made by the house and it’s the best quality representation of our sound to date.

If you’d like to hear it live stop by Honey, 205 E Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, Minnesota tonight at 10pm to hear two sets with special guest musicians and DJ’s including Martin Dosh, Andrew Broder, Scott Fultz, George Cartwright, Rajiah Johnson, Christopher Robin Cox, Kristoff Krane and more.

Try This: DGK Slam Factory Bootleg

Patch #13 Synthetic Harp in 6

Posted on March 13, 2011 by John CS Keston

One of my favorite sounds on polysynths are the plucky, fast decay patches that are great for arpeggiators. I have found myself gravitating toward generating lots of these on the Super Jupiter as I learn the instrument, but I hadn’t bothered saving any of them knowing that I could easily dial them up again when necessary. However, a couple of days ago I decided to start managing my creations. So far I have saved thirteen original patches including “Clangorous Bells” (one through three), a synth clav, a PWM bass, and the most recent of the lot that I titled “Synthy Harp”. Here’s a short passage produced with “Synthy Harp”, patch number thirteen.

Patch #13 Synthetic Harp in 6

Synthesizer Noise Jam #4

Posted on March 12, 2011 by John CS Keston

Here’s the forth entry in my series of synthesizer noise jams. Once again I chose the Roland MKS-80 because since I have repaired it I’m spending most of my time programming this magnificent synth. I just can’t seem to leave it alone. Although this segment is almost two minutes long, it came out of a recording that ran over ten minutes.

Synthesizer Noise Jam #4