Currently the entire debut album from Ostracon, Unauthorized Modifications, is available through August for download on SoundCloud. Please enjoy and thanks for listening. Comments are appreciated. A new Ostracon record has been recorded and will be released after editing, mixing, and mastering has been completed.
Here’s the last of the six tracks from the Ostracon album, Unauthorized Modifications. This one is titled Telemetry Implant and features the artwork of Rogue Citizen, a collective who made this painting during our album release show. It will be temporarily downloadable from SoundCloud or purchase the album from your favorite e-retailer, or directly from Unearthed Music. Thanks for your support!
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.
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.
This the last of 14 tracks from a collection of Ostracon mixes recorded at three consecutive live shows last year. Each track is an untitled improvisation roughly mixed and edited for length. Ostracon is Graham O’Brien on drums and John Keston on electronics. If you are feeling brave, checkout the entire set on SoundCloud and check us out live at the Kitty Cat Klub on August 5, 2012.