Ostracon Debut Excerpt: Photon Coercion

Posted on May 8, 2011 by John CS Keston

Here’s an excerpt of the second track from the upcoming Ostracon debut album, Unauthorized Modifications. This track is titled Photon Coercion. The album consists of drumming by Graham O’Brien and electronic sound that I produced using GMS, or Gestural Music Sequencer. GMS is Open Source software I developed that converts video signals into musical phrases. A video signal is analysed in real-time and then MIDI notes are produced based on brightness tracking and adjustable probability distribution algorithms.

This excerpt, in addition to looped phrases from GMS, includes a lead melodic voice that I played on the touch based synthesizer, Bebot. I fell in love with the expressive way you can bend notes independently on up to five voices (an impossibility on most conventional keyboards – unless you have one of these) using Bebot.

Photon Coercion (excerpt)

DGK at “Try This #3”, Friday, April 15, 2011

Posted on April 15, 2011 by John CS Keston

If you didn’t have the opportunity to “Try This” the first or the second time, now’s your third chance. If you already “Tried” DGK, you know what’s up and will be there on Friday. Click here for details. Here’s a piece of DGK history from “Try This #2”.

DGK at Try This 2 (Part 1)

John Foxx on Electric Independence

Posted on April 1, 2011 by John CS Keston

A fantastic new episode of Electric Independence features an interview with synth-pop pioneer John Foxx in his amazing East London studio. Some of the gear he demos in his studio includes an Arp Odyssey a Moog Modular, a Korg Mono/Poly, and the Roland CR-78 drum machine.

Excerpt of Intro to Heavy Synth Track in Six

Posted on March 29, 2011 by John CS Keston

Inevitably one of the results of the One Synthesizer Sound Every Day project that I started in January is to produce an Ostraka album. So far I have nearly thirty tracks in the works. Many of them will end up on the cutting room floor, but here’s an excerpt from an introduction for one of the pieces that I’m confident will make the roster. The segment starts with a washy arpeggio on the D-50 morphed into a pad with copious amounts of reverb and delay. Next up are some MKS-80 effects that introduce an unprocessed bouncy arpeggio in six eight time.

Excerpt of Intro to Heavy Synth Track in Six

DGK and Friends Bootleg Part 2

Posted on March 28, 2011 by John CS Keston

Once again, on March 13, 2011, my trio DGK performed at the Honey Lounge in Minneapolis, Minnesota in collaboration with a distinguished array of comrades. During part two, in addition to the guests listed for part one, we have spoken word artist Kristoff Krane and bassist Josh Granowski. This section of the recording is even more chatty than the last one, but in a way it’s just a little more character sprinkled into the document.

DGK and Friends Part 2