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.

Sound / Simulacra: Davu Seru Recordings

On Wednesday, July 25th, 2018 Sound / Simulacra featured drummer and composer Davu Seru at Jazz Central Studios. Davu started off the evening with three improved solo pieces. We followed that up with four pieces as a trio with myself and Cody McKinney joining in.

Sound / Simulacra: Bloodline Recordings

On Wednesday, November 22nd, 2017 Sound / Simulacra featured Bloodline at Jazz Central Studios. Bloodline is Peter Hennig (percussion), John C.S. Keston (Rhodes, synthesizers), and Cody McKinney (bass, vocals, electronics). During this concert, captured by Dave Kunath, we performed three pieces as a trio as well as solo pieces from each member of the group.

Sound / Simulacra: John C.S. Keston & Graham O’Brien Recordings

On Wednesday February 22nd, 2017 Sound / Simulacra featured Graham O’Brien at Jazz Central Studios. This was only the second event in the series and somehow these recordings captured by Dave Kunath slipped through the cracks. Fortunately I came across them recently so I can share them now. This concert was shortly before Graham and I performed for Merce Cunningham: Common Time at the Walker Art Center. During this period we were trying a lot of things with aleatoric techniques. This included graphic scores with chance elements, randomized digital sounds that Graham triggered from his acoustic drums, and randomized sound design I was triggering from the PreenFM2.

Sound / Simulacra: Mankwe Ndosi Recordings

On Wednesday April 25th, 2018 Sound / Simulacra featured Mankwe Ndosi at Jazz Central Studios. Mankwe is a fearless performer and vocalist who filled the room with her extraordinary presence, captivating movement, and distinctive extended vocal techniques. This recording is from the last set of the evening when me and Cody McKinney joined Mankwe to form a trio.

Sound / Simulacra: Michael Masaru Flora

On Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019 Sound / Simulacra will start off the New Year presenting Michael Masaru Flora at Jazz Central Studios.

Flora is a Minneapolis based artist working with sound in various contexts. Within the intersections of art, science, music, and mathematics, he creates work that examines sonic morphology, spatialization, and human perception. Flora’s practice includes installation, performance, recording, and curation as well as numerous collaborations with artists in the fields of transdisciplinarity, visual arts, dance, and performance art. His work has been presented at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), St Cloud State University (Minnesota) as well as clubs, galleries, theaters, warehouses, and universities throughout North America. His latest recording “Xi” was published by Minnesota based label Sympathy Limited.

Sound / Simulacra is a monthly series produced by John C.S. Keston and Cody McKinney which explores musical improvisation as a “faithful and intentionally distorted” representational process. Sound / Simulacra brings together some of the Twin Cities most unique voices to “recreate, distort, and create the hyperreal.”

Set 1: Michael Masaru Flora solo performance
Set 2: Michael Masaru Flora with John C.S. Keston and Cody McKinney

Here’s a link to the event details on Facebook