Another project that was released recently is Ambiences from Éire. This collaborative album of electronic ambience fused with acoustic Irish music was an absolute pleasure to be a part of. The project was the brainchild of producer Lister Rossel of West One Music Group in London, who commissioned me to participate as a composer along with Niamh Nolan, and Sean T. Ahern. We began working together in late 2025 and wrapped up our composing duties last April. Most of the collaboration was remote, but I added some piano parts during a trip to Sean’s studio in London last May, and Sean oversaw the recording of Niamh’s voice and several Irish instrumentalists (including himself). The project couldn’t exist without Niamh’s stunning vocal work at the heart of the album.

I could write so much about the process of making this music. For now I’ll say that all of the collaborators were a joy to work with, and it was a thrill to hear one of my compositions realised as a string quartet. Counterintuitive to my own understanding of myself as an artist, I really enjoyed composing within the parameters given to us by the producers and staff at West One. When there were notes or suggestions about a particular piece I really enjoyed the challenge of meeting those requests while sustaining the original intent. I look forward to doing more work of this kind (until we’re all replaced by AI).

This full length stereo version of Gradient Noise is a little closer to what I presented at ICMC in Hamburg last month although without the spatialized elements. More information about this project is available here Gradient Noise .

I am excited to announce that Duets for Synthesizer and _________ is now out on the Berlin based label ElektraMusic.eu. These composition feature live performances with binaural recordings of the surrounding environments. Listening with circumaural headphones will provide a three dimensional sonic image of the ambience in most of the pieces. More details are in the liner notes below.

One-part binaural field recordings and one-part synthesized sound, Duets… treats the ambience of urban spaces as if they were conscious participants in an improvising ensemble. Using analog synthesizers Keston alternates between performing accompaniment for these environments and allowing the ambience to accompany him.

The environmental sounds form drones and rhythmic patterns while Keston responds with fundamental waveforms. The synthesized timbres are modulated and filtered to create complex textures that blend or contrast with the ambient sound. The field recordings were largely captured with binaural microphones. While wearing circumaural headphones the listener is inserted into a 3D soundscape with the synthesized sound placed in the center of the spatial image.