Live Binaural Recording of DKO with Oliver Grudem

Posted on December 10, 2012 by John C.S. Keston

On Friday, December 7, 2012 the MCAD MFA program had its yearly open studio night. Last year it was called SHOW + TELL, but this time we titled it FRANK. There was some amazing work up all over our Whittier studio spaces. I contributed by directing a performance featuring my trio DKO and MCAD alum, Oliver Grudem, who provided a real-time audiovisual score for the ensemble to “read”. This relates to my thesis research in progress, but in brief the audiovisual content was broadcast over a mobile network as Oliver traversed around the city sending us what he saw and heard as it happened.

David Byrne’s Installation with DKO in Binaural Sound

Posted on December 1, 2012 by John C.S. Keston

This is another binaural recording featuring David Byrne’s installation “Playing the Building” at Aria in Minneapolis, this time with the ensemble DKO (Jon Davis on bass clarinet, John Keston on the installation, and Graham O’Brien on percussion).

You can read more about the installation at Aria’s website, but it lends itself perfectly to being documented through binaural recording techniques because the sounds literally come from all around you. There are motors, mallets, and pipes installed on walls, girders, and metal stairs in the historic, gutted, warehouse building, all which are activated from the keyboard of a repurposed, antique, pump organ.

The recording was made with a custom built binaural head microphone. I made the device with a styrofoam mannequin head, a set of silicone ears designed for acupuncture practice, and a pair of Shure MX202 microphones embedded into the ear canals. Once again it is critical that you wear headphones to experience the localized binaural effect, although I just listened on my studio monitors and it sounds very clear and wide, maintaining lots of the spatial qualities.

DKO Recording Session and Performance at Bellows

Posted on October 23, 2012 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s a selection made by Jon Davis from our recent DKO performance and recording session at the lovely Bellows Studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. This rough segment was mixed and engineered by Adam Krinsky. The limited edition poster was designed and screen printed by Jasio Stefanski.

DKO with Douglas Ewart and Steve Goldstein

Posted on October 22, 2012 by John C.S. Keston

Jon Davis extracted this three minute segment from more than two hours of improvisation we recorded using my PCM D-50 at our last monthly performance at the Acadia Cafe in Minneapolis, September 25, 2012. On this occasion we had the pleasure of joining forces with multi-instrumentalist Douglas Ewart and percussionist Steve Goldstein. The original post is on dkomusic.tumblr.com.

DKO Studio Rough Segment #2

Posted on April 27, 2012 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s the second segment that Jon Davis posted on our DKO Soundcloud page from our January session at Waterbury. This excerpt starts with meandering, free passages of bass clarinet and outside Rhodes playing then, at about two minutes in, descends into a distorted passage of dirge metal, complete with bombastic drumming.