Experimental Music Mondays: Ephemeral Structures

Posted on April 26, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

This Monday, April 26, 2010 is the third installment of Experimental Music Mondays at the Kitty Cat Klub in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The line-up includes violin soloist Kip Jones, Ephemeral Structures, and Primidonahue (Michael Donahue). The music will start at around 9:00pm and there’s no cover to get into the club.

Yesterday afternoon I had a fantastic session with Ephemeral Structures. Although we have all worked with each other in several capacities, this is only the second time the group has performed in eight years. The result of yesterday’s session were pretty inspiring, so we are considering producing an album. The project includes Kyle Herskovitz (also know as DJ Zenrock) on turntables, Nils Westdal on bass and electronics, and me on electronics. The photo shows Kyle playing his turntable with a rubber band. I’ll share a segment of what we captured in a upcoming entry.

Electric Independence: Inside Devo’s UFO Studio

Posted on April 21, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

I just got a note from Matt Musick at Vice Magazine regarding a feature on Devo just posted on Motherboard.tv. I haven’t had a chance to properly watch the entire feature, but I’ve been anticipating this, and will give it a good watch as soon as I am able. Here’s Matt’s note:

Hello John. I really think the Audio Cookbook audience would get a kick out of this piece and wanted to pass your way. The new episode of Electric Independence documents a rare look inside Devo’s studio. Mark Mothersbaugh himself gives us a tour through the space and shows us some of his favorite (and strangest) synths and circuit bending noisemakers. The guys even tell us some funny stories of their early Akron days, like the large girls (or “mother hens” as they like to call them) who would circle their equipment to warm it up before playing on those cold Ohio nights.

Watch Electric Independence: Inside Devo’s UFO Studio, They Whip It New Wave, But With New Hats

POSC Pocket Oscillator

Posted on April 19, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

This weekend I built a POSC Pocket Oscillator by Sonodrome as a prototype sound design element for an interactive dance collaboration. The circuit is incredibly simple, as you can see by the photo, but the variety of sounds possible with the two pulse wave oscillators is impressive. The first oscillator is controlled by by the players skin resistance between two zinc plated contacts, while the second is controlled by an LDR (light dependent resistor). Rather than running independently the first oscillation modulates the second.

After testing the build, I temporarily setup the POSC in a small cardboard box and started making sounds. During one test I found that a circuit could be made with two people. when one person touches one contact and a second person touches the other, then the people touch each other the circuit is made with a lot of resistance creating a much slower pulse. Here’s an unprocessed sample edited out of my initial experimentation.

POSC Sample

Sound Crawl 2010

Posted on April 19, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

This Friday, April 23, 2010 at around midnight I am very excited to be performing a rare solo set at McNally Smith under my Ostraka moniker.

I’ll be using a number of custom developed tools, including the GMS and my tentatively titled WTGM (Wave-Table Glitch Machine).

The event is called Sound Crawl and is being billed as “the official sound track for Art Crawl”.

Other artists include James Patrick and Timefog, Oliver Grudem, and Minneapolis Art on Wheels. More information and a complete schedule is available at:

http://blog.mcnallysmith.edu/soundcrawl/2010-schedule/

STEIM Electronic Music Lab at Japan Society in NYC

Posted on April 16, 2010 by John C.S. Keston

I have just been contacted by Steven Salzgeber of the Karpal Group about an upcoming performance of artists from STEIM in New York City at Japan Society on Saturday, May 8, 2009. Unfortunately I’m performing in Minneapolis on that date, so I won’t be able to attend. If you’re anywhere near New York for this show, I highly recommend checking it out. The STEIM performances at the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art last year were some of my favorite moments of the festival, especially the set from DJ Sniff. Here’s what Steven had to say about the event.
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