Free Track from Ostracon Debut Unauthorized Modifications

Posted on June 17, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Unearthed Music is giving away a free track from the album Unauthorized Modifications by Ostracon (John Keston on electronics and Graham O’Brien on drums). This album was recorded and mixed at by Adam Krinsky at the former Flyte Tyme studios and mastered by Tom Garneau of Audioactive.

To get the free track Probability Defect visit the release page and enter your email address in the box in the lower right of the screen. You will then receive an email message with a unique link to download the track at 320kbps. Please let us know here what you think of it and join us for the release show on Friday, June 24, 2011.

Arpeggio with Nightmare

Posted on April 19, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

This arpeggio includes stacked Roland D-50 and Roland MKS-80 sounds, plus some mad, metallic, nightmarish, knob tweaking that I did on the MKS-80. For me the piece invokes a vision of unsuspecting creatures going about their business, unaware of a predatory horror that lurks in their midst.

Arppegio with Nightmare

John Foxx on Electric Independence

Posted on April 1, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

A fantastic new episode of Electric Independence features an interview with synth-pop pioneer John Foxx in his amazing East London studio. Some of the gear he demos in his studio includes an Arp Odyssey a Moog Modular, a Korg Mono/Poly, and the Roland CR-78 drum machine.

New Track Segment and Ostraka Performance

Posted on March 31, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s a segment from a new track that will be included in my performance at 9:30pm on Monday, April 4, 2011 at the Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis. Sputnik Viper with Centrific and newly formed BETAWOLvES are alo on the bill. Aside from the drums the new Ostraka track (working title, Monkey Dog Specimen) is made exclusively of sounds from the Roland D-50 and the Roland MKS-80.

Monkey Dog Specimen Segment

Excerpt of Intro to Heavy Synth Track in Six

Posted on March 29, 2011 by John C.S. Keston

Inevitably one of the results of the One Synthesizer Sound Every Day project that I started in January is to produce an Ostraka album. So far I have nearly thirty tracks in the works. Many of them will end up on the cutting room floor, but here’s an excerpt from an introduction for one of the pieces that I’m confident will make the roster. The segment starts with a washy arpeggio on the D-50 morphed into a pad with copious amounts of reverb and delay. Next up are some MKS-80 effects that introduce an unprocessed bouncy arpeggio in six eight time.

Excerpt of Intro to Heavy Synth Track in Six