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.

Video: REV2 Patch Degrader Demo & Sounds

This video describes and demonstrates the device I designed to create most of the patches in the REV2 Experimental Sound Set available here on AudioCookbook.org:

https://audiocookbook.org/prophet-rev2-patch-set/

I am hoping to make it available sometime in the next few months if I can gage enough interest for a release. To hear five minutes of just the patches (no talking) please skip to 9:56. Also a complete playlist of all 128 patches is available on SoundCloud:

SoundSimulacra.org Offcially Launched

I am pleased to announce the launch of a new website for the Sound / Simulacra performance series that I produce with Cody McKinney. This website will host a calendar of events, artist profiles, and recordings of the concerts. Please visit soundsimulacra.org and let us know what you think!

Prophet Rev2 Experimental Patch Bank Now Available

Since November of 2018 I have been working on developing a collection of experimental patches for the Sequential Prophet Rev2. This was a ton of work, partially because I developed a custom Max for Live device specifically to explore more experimental soundscapes but well worth it. I am quite happy with the results and have made the patches available for purchase here on AudioCookbook.org. Checkout all 128 patches in this playlist or have a listen to a few of my favorites below.





Sound / Simulacra: DeVon Gray & Patrick Pegg Recordings

On December 27, 2017 Sound / Simulacra featured DeVon Russell Gray and Patrick Pegg. DeVon and Patrick started of the evening with an uninterrupted 38:10 minute set of acoustic piano and esoteric electronics. In the second set Cody McKinney (bass and electronics) and I (Rhodes and Moog Sub 37) joined the duo to perform a 34:09 minute piece followed by final 8:47 minute piece in closing.

Playlist Started for Rev2 Experimental Patch Set

This incomplete playlist will eventually feature all 128 presets from the AudioCookbook.org Experimental Patch set for the Prophet Rev2. This collection includes experimental, glitch, special effects, and a few conventional patches. All the patches are entirely original creations built from the ground up or through custom morphing software developed in Max for Live for the Rev2. I’ll post more tracks to the playlist soon. Let me know if you have questions or if you’re interested in the set. Thanks!