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.

Stand with Bandcamp in Support of Immigrants / Human Rights

Posted on February 2, 2017 by John CS Keston

This Friday, February 3, 2017, BandCamp has pledged to donate 100% of their share of album sales to the ACLU in support of immigrants and basic human rights. I have decided to join them and donate 100% of our share of BandCamp album sales to the ACLU as well. This means the full price of every sale for the Unearthed Music catalog on Friday will be donated to the ACLU. This includes my new solo album Isosceles:

<a target="_blank" href="http://unearthedmusic.bandcamp.com/album/isosceles" >Isosceles by Ostraka</a>

And my recent album in collaboration with Chilean produced Lister Rossel, Isikles:

<a target="_blank" href="http://isikles.bandcamp.com/album/isikles" >Isikles by John Keston and Lister Rossel</a>

I had the privilege of immigrating to the United States at the age of ten and I’m saddened that that privilege is being denied to many many deserving children, elderly, and people seeking asylum simply because of their religious beliefs and country of origin. This executive order from 45 is a xenophobic reaction that will do nothing to prevent terrorism. Please support the ACLU in their campaign to block this executive action and listen to some great music in the process.

Pyramid’s Euclidean Rhythms Meet Novation Circuit

Posted on January 11, 2017 by John CS Keston

In the spirit of #JAMUARY2017 (thanks to Cuckoo for having the stamina to do it everyday!) I have made a video track using the Squarp Pyramid, Novation Circuit, Moog Sub 37, PreenFM2, Rhodes, Minifooger Delay, and Korg KP3+. I’m not great at making these (hence the shaky video), but they’re fun to do every so often.

The track starts out with a Rhodes loop that I played into the KP3+ with an LFO sweeping a resonant high pass filter. Next I start to bring in Euclidean patterns on each of the four Circuit drum parts. These are generated through individual tracks on the Pyramid. I have it setup with four Euclidean patterns per track bank for a total of sixteen. This way I can mix and match all sixteen patterns on the Pyramid and even swap them or combine them with patterns on the Circuit.

I also use Pyramid to sequence the bass and synth chords on the Circuit. In addition I have a track for the Sub 37 that I mute while soloing, and a track for the PreenFM2. The Sub 37 is in “local off” mode, so whichever track I have selected on Pyramid determines what instrument plays. I find the keybed and flexibility of the Sub 37 perfect as a controller and sound source. Thanks for listening and check out my new album Isosceles for more like it that’s actually mixed and mastered properly. ;-)

Novation Circuit Randomized Patches

Posted on December 21, 2016 by John CS Keston

In my mind, sound design is at its best when it is a process of discovery. At its worst it can be an unfortunate exercise in mimicry. I am fascinated by the process of discovering sound through happy accidents. One of the techniques I have exploited frequently in this regard is synthesizer patch randomization. For example, the Yamaha TX81Z sounds great when randomized, or better yet, “degraded” with shuffled parameter values interpolated based on a time unit or clock division. The PreenFM2 has patch randomization built directly into the instrument!

So, it wasn’t long after picking up a Novation Circuit that I had the urge to use a similar shortcut to mine fantastic and otherworldly sounds from the unit. Full MIDI specification for the Circuit is available so that development of a standalone randomizer is possible, but Isotonik Studios published a free Max for Live editor in partnership with Novation. Max for Live patches are inherently editable so I decided to start there.

It took me a couple of hours to get into the guts of the editor and setup a drop down menu for randomization. The drop down has choices to either “randomize all” (not quite all parameters), or randomize one of seven sets of grouped parameters like the oscillator section, mod matrix, or LFOs. At his stage I haven’t included the EQ section, voice controls, or macro controls. I probably won’t add the EQ, but the macro controls might offer some interesting possibilities. The image above shows a simple subpatch I made that takes a bang and outputs the random values for the oscillator section. Unfortunately, I can not legally share my mods based on Isotonik’s and Novation’s EULAs. However, you’ll need little more than a basic understanding of Max to do this yourself. Checkout the video and let me know what you think in the comments.

Wednesday Performance at the Triple Rock

Posted on December 13, 2016 by John CS Keston

This Wednesday I will be playing an improvised solo set of synth music at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis. I produced this teaser by crossfading a few clips from my rehearsal for the show. The bill, hosted by Hardcore Crayons, also includes Clustercuss and collaborative performances from everyone. Enjoy!

Squarp’s Pyramid Sequencer Firmware v1.0

Posted on November 28, 2016 by John CS Keston

Squarp’s Pyramid sequencer just got a new firmware update with the prestigious versioning of 1.0. I’ve had mine now for almost a year and have seen a slew of software updates during that time. The new features in 1.0 include a new LFO MIDI effect. These LFOs can be chained together creating all sorts of possibilities.
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