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.

Forest Floor

Posted on January 7, 2009 by John CS Keston

I found this short loop of loose keyboard playing in an Ableton Live set. I had played it and live looped the phrase during a performance. Most of these little clips are never heard again, but every so often I save the set with the clips intact. Even more rarely I go back and listen to these archives. Here’s one that had been sitting in a folder of collected files for a while, so I decided to loop it and add some reverb for a finishing touch.

Forest Floor

Korg MS2000 Noises for Sunset

Posted on January 6, 2009 by John CS Keston

Here’s a segment from a single track out of the piece Sunset on Keston and Westdal’s first album, Super Structure Baby (2002, Unearthed Music). Sunset was the final piece on the album until Kinon’s Path was added as a bonus track for the reissue.

Sunset was the first track that I wrote after buying my Korg MS2000 in 2000, so I was still learning the instrument but enjoying myself fully in the process. The knob turning goes on for the whole seven minutes and two seconds of the piece, but I have edited it down to the first minute and six seconds.

Sunset Noises

Surly 1×1 Rigid Front Fork

Posted on January 5, 2009 by John CS Keston

Listening on monitors or good quality phones will allow you to hear the deep tone created when I smacked my palm against the side of the rigid front fork from my Surly 1×1 single speed mountain bike. I captured this sound with my PCM-D50 using the built in mics. This was a quiet sound so I needed to record in a quiet space.

This time I used my bedroom. The first step was to turn down the heat and wait for the fan to stop on the forced air heating system. Secondly I put the recorder on a stable surface (i.e. the bedside table) held the fork with my left hand while smacking it with my right palm.

Surly 1×1 Rigid Front Fork

Unreleased Extended Version of Some Kind of Adhesive

Posted on January 3, 2009 by John CS Keston

Another collaborative effort that I am quite pleased with is this extended version of Some Kind of Adhesive produced and performed by myself and Nils Westdal. The piece is eleven minutes and seventeen seconds long and contains four interwoven movements. The original condensed version is heard on One Day to Save All Life (Unearthed Music, 2008). Once again, processing played an integral role in the production and performance of the work.

This is an ACB exclusive preview since the track has not been released on Unearthed Music, or any other label. It will probably be released this year on a compilation or as a single. In the meantime, please enjoy listening to this full length preview at 192kbps.

Some Kind of Adhesive
[Extended Mix]