Love Lessons from Regina

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Here’s another analog synth, electro-funk composition that I have kept in a locked drawer for almost a year, taking it out occasionally to brush of the dust and hold it against the light. If this track doesn’t become your Summer jam then it is time for me to give up on music and wonder When did music become unimportant? Aside from the drums, this track was made entirely using my restored Roland Juno-106. Few instruments rival the punchy sounds that the 106 seems to spurt out with only a few careful strokes of her many sliders. Please enjoy responsibly.

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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.

5 thoughts on “Love Lessons from Regina”

  2. really, really amazing work on the sparkly chime sounds at the beginning! the panning also got my attention.

    the later more muted/filtered arp/lead stuff was really good, too, especially as the envelope opened up. and that ridiculously jazzy e-piano/funky wah lead. so crunchy!

    these kinds of light/sparkly/shimmery sounds are exactly why i got my 106. i still don’t know how to make ’em, but i learn something new every time i turn it on. thanks for your always-inspiring sounds!

    also: how do you deal with the lack of velocity on the 106? do you do a ton of per-note/phrase automation in post, or do you pick one level and let the layer ride at only that volume for the whole track?

  3. @ioflow Thanks for the feedback! My approach to the lack of velocity on the 106 is to use it like a synth that doesn’t have velocity. That means riding the filters while playing it, or using it specifically for things that don’t need dynamics. If I need dynamics then I’ll switch to a synth that has it, like the MKS-80. Per note/phrase automation in post is the kind of fussiness that I typically stay away from.

  4. this is an interesting (and new) idea to me, but one that makes sense. play it for what it is, and use synthesis techniques to get the interesting stuff out of it.

    my background is in classical piano, so to me, dynamics are everything, and it’s always been weird to work with an instrument like the 106 or AX60 that doesn’t offer volume changes, aside from working the amp env.

    i definitely like the idea of not having to fuss with the track after recording, but finding other ways to express interesting sounds. will have to put some thought and experimentation into this.

  5. Some musicians, especially organ players, run their synths through a volume pedal. I’ve attempted this, and even have a high quality Morley volume pedal, but never got it to work properly. I have played quite a bit of Hammond organ in previous projects and found the volume pedal a valuable source of dynamics. I also have a background in classical and jazz piano where dynamics are critical. But I am willing to sacrifice velocity when it comes to an interesting, vintage synth that is covered in knobs that can be applied to realtime expression — for one handed phrases at least.

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