ACB Live Volume 5: Music Made with Trackers

Posted on September 2, 2023 by John CS Keston

Last Tuesday, August 29, 2023 was the fifth entry into the AudioCookbook Live streaming show. This time around two guests participated with me including Lucas Melchior aka MKR, and Evan Beaumont. Each us of played music using the Dirtywave M8 tracker. I was thoroughly impressed with the work that Lucas and Evan performed, so I am pleased to be able to share the stream archive with you. The video is long, but I have included chapter markers so you can skip the discussions, although I think we made some interesting points about how using trackers influences our approaches to music composition, production, and performance.

Friday, Sept. 1 with Eric Carranza, Matty Harris, and Jesse Whitney

Posted on August 31, 2023 by John CS Keston

Join us for a night of music at ROK Bar, 882 7th St. W, Suite 12, St. Paul, MN 55102 on September 1, 2023. Jesse Whitney starts off the evening with a solo electronic set, followed by two trio sets from Eric Carranza (guitars and electronics), Matty Harris (saxophones), and me (keys included my Osmose Expressive E).

ACB Live Volume 4 Stream Archive

Posted on July 28, 2023 by John CS Keston

If you missed the Twitch.TV/AudioCookbook stream from May 2023 featuring Cody McKinney the entire performance is archived in four parts on YouTube. Unfortunately my GoPro Hero8 failed to connect as a webcam, so I ended up using the camera on my MacBook Pro. My Hero8 turned out to be defective and GoPro is kindly sending me a Hero9 to replace it.

Although the video quality is not what I’d like I recorded the audio in multitrack then, mixed it, and applied some rudimentary mastering. As a result the archived videos sound better than the original stream. Enjoy!

SYNTAX at the Performing Media Festival 2023

Posted on March 5, 2023 by John CS Keston

Keston and Honick performing SYNTAX at iDMAa 2022 Weird Media

I’m pleased to share that I will be giving a concert of the piece SYNTAX in collaboration with Mike Hodnick AKA Kindohm at the Performing Media Festival on March 10 at LangLab in South Bend, Indiana. This video excerpt of the piece was presented at NIME 2022, and we performed the piece in-person at ICMC 2022 in Limerick last July, and at iDMAa 2022 Weird Media last June.

SYNTAX is an exercise in programming computers to program ourselves. Mike and I each composed four movements for a total of eight generative, animated, graphic scores. We follow the unpredictable yet familiar visuals making each performance similar, but distinct from the next.

The piece questions technological idealism in an age of ecological disruption and data-driven exploitation. By deliberately coding and submitting to an “inversion of control” we’re evoke the warnings of media theorists like Douglas Rushkoff, that we risk a future wherein our behavior might be irreversibly dictated by the algorithms in the software we use instead of by our own volition. If you can’t catch our performance in South Bend, we’ll be performing it again in Kalamazoo, MI the next day at the Dormouse Theatre.

ACB Live Volume 1 & 2 Videos

Posted on January 24, 2023 by John CS Keston

AudioCookbook Live is underway over on Twitch.TV with the next episode to feature musician Eric Julio Carranza on February 21, 2023. In the meantime enjoy these captured version of the first two sessions from the series: