AVGM with Tempest, BSII, and Volca Keys

Posted on July 5, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

During Northern Spark 2014 I performed a version of Vocalise Sintetica at the Katherine E. Nash Gallery. The event, timed with Northern Spark 2014, also marked the opening of The Audible Edge (May 27 through July 26, 2014), a sound art exhibit of which I am also taking part. Since it was a local performance I decided to introduce the DSI Tempest into the setup (along with the Bass Station II, Korg Volca Keys, and Memory Man Delay).

This led me in a completely different direction than the performance in Prague. I was quite happy with the results so I produced a few studio versions of alternative movements. For these videos I made a screen capture of the AVGM (Audiovisual Grain Machine) and interspersed shots of the instrumentation. Here’s the the first alternative movement of I. Machines. I hope to post a couple more movements at a later date. View photos from the performance below.
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Vocalise Sintetica at Echofluxx 14, Prague

Posted on June 30, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

On May 7, 2014 I performed Vocalise Sintetica at the Echofluxx Festival in Prague. The piece is made up of four movements: I. Machines (00:00), II. Liquid (18:43), III. Vocalise (28:55), and, IV. Sintetica (38:41). Each movement is a playlist of five audiovisual objects that are instantly available to be projected and amplified while being granulated in real-time by a performer using a multitouch interface. The performer may loop their gestures applied to the audiovisual objects in order to bring in additional synthesized sound layers that contrast or mimic the audiovisual objects. My performance at Echofluxx was made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.
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TV Takeover: Northern Lights.mn (Live Stream)

Posted on June 6, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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Tonight I am going to be improvising electronic music on live television in reaction to projects presented by past and present Northern Spark artists. The event is hosted by Twin Cities Public Television and is open to the public with tickets available for the in studio event. Read more about the TV Takeover event or watch it live at the YouTube stream above. [Edit: the event is over, but the video is available above.]

Duet No. 2 With The Singing Ringing Tree

Posted on May 14, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

This was the second take on day one of my Duets recording project with the Singing Ringing Tree (SRT), a wind activated musical panopticon in Northern England. The sculpture was designed by architects Tonkin Liu and completed in December 2006. I performed accompaniment for the SRT binaural recording simultaneously using a Novation Bass Station II connected to a USB battery. I also ran the Bass Station II through a Moog Minifooger Delay. Eventually I will be producing videos of these compositions. For now I wanted to try a quick mix to get an idea of how things will sound.

NOTE: This is a binaural recording combined with a monophonic synthesizer track. Although it sounds great through speakers, circumaural headphones must be used to experience the binaural effect.

Coleoptera

Posted on February 25, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

In this no-overdubs-performed-live track a paraphonic chord pattern from the Korg Volca Keys is prominently featured. I used several other favorites in the piece including the Roland D-50, Roland Juno-106 arpeggiated by Ableton, Novation Bass Station II, and the DSI Tempest. There’s also signature delay feedback swells from the Memory Man.