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.

Green Plasma 3D by Ralph Hauwert

Posted on October 4, 2010 by John CS Keston

Ralph Hauwert created this Pixelbender 3D Distance Field Raymarcher, rendered out in After Effects at HD resolution, and used my track Rhodes Pedal Noise from Precambrian Resonance for the music. Check out the HD video below.

Jred Smyth Triggered Drum Performance

Posted on September 28, 2010 by John CS Keston

Graham O’Brien and I really enjoyed our Ostracon performance at the In / Out Festival recently. Part of what made this festival for us was all of the other incredible performers and speakers at the event, such as Rosa Menkman and Peter Kirn. One prominent example was Jred Smyth who gave an energetic and inspired solo drumming concert featuring triggered sounds that transformed the work into evolving structured compositions. Checkout the video clip above of Jred Smyth with Blair Neal on visuals.

Ostraka Solo Set at Spark Festival Saturday, October 2, 2010

Posted on September 27, 2010 by John CS Keston

The Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts is starting this Wednesday, September 29, and continues through Saturday, October 2, 2010. The festival this year includes yet another impressive array of artists.

I will be performing a solo Ostraka set on Saturday, October 2, prior to Caly McMorrow, and the amazing Fred Frith. Unbelievably, all of the performances and exhibits are free and open to the public. Checkout the Spark Festival website for details.

I’ll be performing at the Love Power Church, 1407 South Washington Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota, upstairs at 6:30pm on Saturday, October 2 just before Caly McMorrow.

In Out Festival Track Donation: Entropy Procedure by Ostracon

Posted on September 14, 2010 by John CS Keston

I’m pleased to share with ACB readers the track donation that we made for the In / Out Festival Kickstarter project. The track is titled Entropy Procedure by Ostracon and features myself on the GMS interfaced with Ableton Live, and Graham O’Brien on drums. It was delightfully engineered and mixed by Adam Krinsky, and mastered by the amazing Tom Garneau who, if you read his discography you will find, recorded and mixed Too Legit to Quit by MC Hammer (an unrelated but awesome bit of data for you).

We will be performing similar work to this at the In / Out Festival this weekend on Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 9:30pm at the Tank Theater in Manhattan. Please checkout the entire festival starting on Friday afternoon with free workshops and finishing with the Saturday evening performances. The evening performances are only $15 per night, or $25 for both nights with a total of nine performances. This is unlike any music I have produced in the past, so comments are encouraged.

Entropy Procedure by Ostracon

Unicorn Dream Attack and Ostracon at the Honey Lounge

Posted on September 10, 2010 by John CS Keston

On Saturday, September 11, 2010 Ostracon is performing a “send off” show for the In / Out Festival in New York. I am excited to be sharing the stage again with 8-bit maestro, Unicorn Dream Attack. Stefen Keen of UDA describes his music as follows.

The music I make is often times called “8-bit” or “chiptunes” (there are many other names but these are the most popular). There are many many ways to make this music. Some of them include using live sounds, trackers, or MIDI inputs on vintage computers (like Commodore 64), game systems (like a Gameboy or NES), old Casios/Yamahas (like vl-tone or vs-30), and circuit bent toys or non-bent toys of all kinds. check out the forums at chipmusic.org, 8bitcollective.com, and micromusic.net for more answers.

I describe it as intense, square wave, head exploding madness, not to be missed. UDA takes the stage at 7:45pm followed by my duet, Ostracon, with Graham O’Brien on drums at 8:45pm. The event takes place at the Honey Lounge, located in the basement of Ginger Hop at 205 East Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55414. The show is free if you arrive before 9:00pm.