Introducing the Fluid Piano

Posted on December 10, 2009 by John CS Keston

My mate Joshua Herbst recently shared this video with me of the first ever “fluid” piano invented by Geoff Smith.

The completely acoustic piano allows the musician to tune every string by a whole tone either during the performance or before hand in order to set up particular microtonal scales.

The fluid piano sounds beautiful, reminiscent of sitar, but with a deeper tone quality. I can’t wait to hear more from this ingenious instrument.

Here’s the original article from the Guardian:
Introducing the ‘fluid piano’

A Glorious Dawn

Posted on September 28, 2009 by John CS Keston

This has clearly been making the rounds, so it’s likely that you’ve already had the pleasure, but I can’t resist linking it to it here.

The piece features video and auto-tuned dialog of Carl Sagan from his amazing series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, mashed-up into a melancholy, downtempo, new-age, retro music video with just enough (or perhaps not enough) tongue in cheek. Finally, auto-tune use to be proud of!

The piece was produced by John Boswell. More about him and his music is available on his site. He has also made a download of the track and the video available here.

MAW Media Mash-up at the WBSC

Posted on September 25, 2009 by John CS Keston

Earlier this month I shared an excerpt of music from a performance at a recent Minneapolis Art on Wheels exhibition. MAW artist, Andrea Steudel, did some excellent video documentation that highlights the artwork and sound that transpired at the event.

The audio quality is quite good, considering the conditions in the space, and goes a long way to illustrate the ambiance during the night. Please enjoy the video and checkout the original post at http://minneapolisartonwheels.org/content/media-mash-wbsc.

GMS Ensemble Live Performance Segment #2

Posted on June 26, 2009 by John CS Keston

Here’s another segment of video from the Flashbelt after party on June 8, 2009. The music is still Graham O’Brien on drums and me using the GMS.

However, the visuals shown are mostly part of an excellent piece on gender transformation by Sinan G. of minneapolisartonwheels.org.

I think this short chunk of video is an accurate illustration of the spirit of the party.

In my mind the best parties are always in alleyways, sometimes in warehouses, and once in a while in apartment kitchens.

Click to view a 640 x 480 version of GMS Ensemble Live Segment #2.

GMS Ensemble Live Performance

Posted on June 24, 2009 by John CS Keston

Nils Westdal shot this video of myself and Graham O’Brien on drums performing with the GMS during one of the Flashbelt after parties on June 8, 2009. The party was held in the back alley of One on One bike studio, considered the bike Mecca of the Midwest.

Recorded using the internal mic on the video camera, the mix is chatty and pretty drum heavy for the first half, but you can hear the GMS sequencing a little better toward the end.

The setup consists of a MacBook Pro running the GMS synced to Ableton Live 7, an M-Audio Firewire 410 interface, a Mackie 1202 mixer, my Korg MS2000 for external control of the GMS, a Casio projector, and a variety of bike lights and spinning LED tops as “light controllers”.

Click to view a 640 x 480 version in a new tab.