52 Minutes of Music for the Brave at Heart

Posted on July 29, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

On Monday, July 19, 2010, my latest trio featuring Jon Davis on bass guitar and bass clarinet, Tim Glenn on drums, and me on Rhodes and Sequential Circuits Pro-One, played at the Kitty Cat Klub for the Experimental Music Mondays series.

I recorded the set on my Sony PCM-D50 and applied some subtle mastering with Ableton Live. I’m pretty fond of how the music and the recording turned out other than the fact that the bass clarinet is too low in the mix.

Here are the three tracks of improvised music from the evening adding up to around fifty two minutes. If you like experimental improvised music be prepared to have a long and challenging listen.

Davis-Glenn-Keston Track 1

Davis-Glenn-Keston Track 2

Davis-Glenn-Keston Track 3

Ostracon at In Out Festival, September 2010

Posted on July 26, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

Ostracon Video from Unearthed Music on Vimeo.

My project Ostracon (John Keston and Graham O’Brien) has been selected to perform at the In/Out Digital Performance Festival in New York this September, 2010. The schedule hasn’t been finalized yet, but we’ll be playing either on the 17th or 18th of the month at the Tank Theater, 354 West 45th Street, New York, NY 10036. Last year’s lineup included Monome creator, tehn (Brian Crabtree), and Peter Kirn of Creative Digital Music. From the In/Out Festival website.

In/Out is an annual festival that features leading performers, developers, artists, and tinkerers of the digital design community in hopes bridging the gap between the forum based world and the stage. The festival seeks to bring digitally driven performances into the limelight with two full days of workshops and performances.

This video is a live studio piece shot by Ai student Josh Clos, and recorded at Ai Minnesota by John Keston and Graham O’Brien. It’s representative of the music that we are generating during our live performances. For more checkout the Ostracon tag here on ACB, or visit our bio on Unearthed Music.

Experimental Music Mondays #6

Posted on July 16, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

This round of Experimental Music Mondays features Stuart DeVaan from Savage Aural Hotbed, Davis-Glenn-Keston (Jon Davis, Tim Glenn, and John Keston), and Ostracon (John Keston and Graham O’Brien). Usually the last Monday of the month, this instance has been bumped up this Monday, July 19, 2010 where you will find us at the Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Expect to receive a brain-full of beautiful, grating, mysterious, haunting, mechanical, and organic sounds.

Pigs on Horses

Posted on October 5, 2008 by Saronni

The Mississippi River is where my mates and I like to retreat to for fun and mischief. The other day
I was poorly documenting John Keston making some field recordings of a passing rowing team with my cell phone camera. I took the audio from the footage and made a little ambient piece using loads of processing. If I explained the treatment that I used on this short little low bit number I would have to write a book. So I’ll keep it short. I’m also posting the video so you can catch a glimpse of our late afternoon shenanigans. Now do you understand how I got the title for this ditty?

Pigs on Horses

Oxotremorine

Posted on October 4, 2008 by John C.S. Keston

I created this piece today by starting with a few percussive micro samples from a recent field recording and using them as percussion. After programming a simple pattern I ran it through Pluggo’s Harmonic Filter and resampled the results to get two musical loops; one with a low frequency hit that forms the bass in the piece and another with a simple descending melody.

I put a triplet ping-pong delay on one send and an enormous reverb on another then made a quick 1:40 minute mix to hear how it all sounded together. I haven’t explained all the details by any means, so if you have any questions about what you’re hearing post a comment and I’ll give you more information.

Oxotremorine