Duet No.1 for Synthesizer and The Singing Ringing Tree

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This is the first in a series of videos that document my five day recording session and performance series at the Singing Ringing Tree (SRT) in Burnley, UK. The SRT is 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 recordings simultaneously using a Novation Bass Station II connected to a USB battery. I also ran the Bass Station II through a Moog Minifooger Delay.

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.

The Singing Ringing Tree on Day One of my Five Day Session

This was also from the first day of the sessions and I was in awe of the SRT and its surroundings. I recorded two takes before a light rain disrupted my work. Overall the weather cooperated and I was only interrupted on a few occasions during my five days on location. In fact, I returned for a second, early-evening session on the first day after the rain cleared and was greeted by these two.

Ewe with her Lamb near the Singing Ringing Tree

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About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

8 thoughts on “Duet No.1 for Synthesizer and The Singing Ringing Tree”

  2. Hi John – We’re Mid Pennine Arts and we were the initiators and project managers for the Panopticons programme that included the SRT. We’d really like to share your blog on our SRT web page and through our monthly ebulletin. Would that be okay?

  4. Hi Melanie. Thanks for your comment! Please do share on your SRT page and monthly bulletin. I will be posting at least five more of these compositions over the next two or three months, so feel free to share them as they are released.

  6. Really great to see my hometown featured here in such a way. You have done what this installation was screaming out for.
    Wish I was around in Burnley to collaborate with you but I currently live in Latvia… where you are most welcome too! :D

  7. Thanks, Lee! I’m actually based in the States but originally from the UK (grew up in Wantage, Oxfordshire). Made the trip to the SRT specifically for this project. It was a mesmorizing and unforgettable five day pilgrimage, mostly spent alone at the panopticon.

  8. I love it. It would have been nice to hear the rain and heavy wind play the instrument…more of these types of things need to be in the world.

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