Tag Archives: Experimental

Consonant Dissonance out July 27, 2026

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Consonant Dissonance Elektramusic Berlin, 2026. Album art photo by John C.S. Keston.

I am releasing a solo, acoustic piano album titled Consonant Dissonance on Elektramusic Berlin on July 27, 2026. Among the original compositions are several electroacoustic pieces that process the piano through a modular synthesizer. For each of those the piano signals are handled in different ways. These include granular synthesis, looping, pitch shifting, reverse, analog filtering, delay, and reverberation, all modulated via a function generator, low frequency oscillators, and a sampling touch controller which I operated while playing the pieces.

The modular synth I used for the album. Ironically this was photographed at the venue Berlin in Minneapolis​.

The album was recorded at The University of St Thomas, Schoenecker Center, Audio Studio on a Kawai RX-3 grand piano. Gratitude goes out to my former student Alejandro Vega for engineering assistance, and Adam Krinsky for mixing and mastering consultation. Well before I recorded the album I performed the pieces live at a few venues including Berlin, the excellent music venue in Minneapolis that borrows the German city’s name. The irony isn’t lost on me that a label based in Berlin are the ones releasing it over a year later.

The videos above and below were made with a digital piano as a proof of concept for running piano through a modular system to process the signals. I had manipulated piano through processing at concerts in the past (see this article about an electroacoustic piano concert from 2016), but this was the first time doing it with a bespoke modular synth, where the modules and patching were specifically designed for that purpose.

Gradient Noise at ICMC 2026

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I’m pleased to announce that I will be performing the world premiere of my piece Gradient Noise at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Hamburg, Germany on May 11 at 9:30pm. The following video except represent the work in progress. The final piece will be 10 minutes long and contain up to four layers of instruments with independent, corresponding, video objects.

Since 2019 I have been composing animated graphic scores for ensembles and soloists. Examples include Parking Ramp Project, SYNTAX, and Rhodonea. These generative works are projected for both the performers to read and audience to experience. I write software to generate and animate the geometric forms, and establish rules on how the forms are read, whilst allowing improvisation and the emotional response of the performer to play an integral part in each piece.

Gradient Noise, written using the Processing.org language, translates values generated by the Perlin noise algorithm into independent layers of seamless loops repeating at variable intervals. These loops are visualised as geometric forms, abstract visualizations, and evolving structures. The data generated is aleatoric, but the values can be tuned to range between slowly moving gradients or rapid, angular forms. When the sound and visuals are synchronized I respond not only to the animation but also to the changes in the timbre of my instruments.

Through Gradient Noise I am rethinking the relationships between musicians and machines. By translating the properties of n-dimensional Perlin noise into a musical language, the piece presents a unified ecosystem with coordinated timbres and geometric forms. Thus generating a living environment that requires active participation and improvisation. Ultimately, the work presents a contemporary model for computer music where the performer does not simply follow a score, but negotiates a path through a responsive, multi-sensory experience.

SYNTAX Blu-Ray Disc from Æther Sound

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Our generative, animated, graphic score, performance project SYNTAX in collaboration with Mike Hodnick (aka Kindohm) is now available from Æther Sound as a Blu-Ray disc. The Disc contains all eight of our compositions as well as two bonus videos. One from Mike titled n ciom 4 and another from me titled Rhodonea. It all adds up to a total of one hour and fifteen minutes of music with animation.

After performing SYNTAX at The International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Limerick, Ireland; New Interfaces for Musical Expression or NIME; The Performing Media Festival, South Bend, IN; The Int. Digital Media Arts conference, Winona, MN; and venues in Minneapolis and Kalamazoo I’m excited that we can share these works on physical media. Video excerpts are available on YouTube (see below), but the Blu-Ray disc is the only way to experience high-fidelity, full-length studio versions of this project. Learn more about SYNTAX here or buy the Blu-Ray from Æther Sound here.

Tonight at BERLIN (MPLS) Electroacoustic Music

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In keeping with my usual last minute reminders about shows, tonight at 7pm CST I’ll be playing a solo piano set of electroacoustic compositions followed by alone-a (Alana Horton) and Crystal Myslajek at Berlin, Minneapolis in the North Loop. These pieces make use of a modular skiff (a small case of Eurorack synthesizer modules) to sample, resample, and process the acoustic sound of the piano as I play. The results have been super satisfying, so I am thrilled to be sharing this work. More details are available at berlinmpls.com.

Radical Futures Performance Piece: Rhodonea

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On Wednesday, May 8, I debuted a performance piece titled Rhodonea at the Radical Futures conference at University College Cork, Ireland. At the concert I had the privilege of sharing the bill with Brian Bridges, Cárthach Ó Nuanáin, Robin Parmar, and Liz Quirke.

Rhodonea is a series of audiovisual etudes performed as a model of how we might collaborate with near future synthetic entities. Software feeds automated, algorithmic, projected visual cues, tempi, and low frequency oscillations to improvising electronic musicians. The compelling visuals, based on Maurer Roses, suggest melodic, harmonic, and percussive gestures that are modulated by data streaming from the generative animations. Throughout the piece artists adapt to the familiar yet unpredictable graphic scores and corresponding signals. The end result is an impression of how humans might interact with AI in a collaborative and experimental way.

I chose to perform Rhodonea as a soloist although it can be performed by an ensemble of up to four musicians. The generative and improvisational aspects mean that every performance is different than the next, but the piece has a consistent signature that leads the music. This includes modulation corresponding to each rhodonea that is translated into MIDI data and fed to parameters that effect the timbre and other aspects of the instruments. I captured the video above the day after the performance, which illustrates the characteristics of the piece, which I developed in Processing.org.

For this international performance I used four instruments inside Ableton Live 12 controlled by an Arturia KeyStep to minimize the gear I needed to travel with. The Ableton instruments I used were Drift, two instances of Meld (a macrosynth new in Live 12), and Collision. In the video below you can see how the generative graphics are manipulating the filter in Drift.