Duet No.1 for Synthesizer and The Singing Ringing Tree

Posted on July 21, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

This is the first in a series of videos that document my five day recording session and performance series at the Singing Ringing Tree (SRT) in Burnley, UK. The SRT is a wind activated musical panopticon in Northern England. The sculpture was designed by architects Tonkin Liu and completed in December 2006. I performed accompaniment for the SRT binaural recordings simultaneously using a Novation Bass Station II connected to a USB battery. I also ran the Bass Station II through a Moog Minifooger Delay.

NOTE: This is a binaural recording combined with a monophonic synthesizer track. Although it sounds great through speakers, circumaural headphones must be used to experience the binaural effect. Continue reading →

Vocalise Sintetica at Echofluxx 14, Prague

Posted on June 30, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

On May 7, 2014 I performed Vocalise Sintetica at the Echofluxx Festival in Prague. The piece is made up of four movements: I. Machines (00:00), II. Liquid (18:43), III. Vocalise (28:55), and, IV. Sintetica (38:41). Each movement is a playlist of five audiovisual objects that are instantly available to be projected and amplified while being granulated in real-time by a performer using a multitouch interface. The performer may loop their gestures applied to the audiovisual objects in order to bring in additional synthesized sound layers that contrast or mimic the audiovisual objects. My performance at Echofluxx was made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.
Continue reading →

TV Takeover: Northern Lights.mn (Live Stream)

Posted on June 6, 2014 by John C.S. Keston

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Tonight I am going to be improvising electronic music on live television in reaction to projects presented by past and present Northern Spark artists. The event is hosted by Twin Cities Public Television and is open to the public with tickets available for the in studio event. Read more about the TV Takeover event or watch it live at the YouTube stream above. [Edit: the event is over, but the video is available above.]

Duet for Synthesizers and Mobile Conductor (2013)

Posted on November 11, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

Duet for Synthesizers and Mobile Conductor is a piece composed and performed by John Keston in collaboration with David T Steinman who also performs in the piece as the mobile conductor. Steinman creates a real-time audiovisual score that is broadcast into the performance space from a remote location. This score consists of textural, atonal, and arrhythmic “sound features” produced with artifacts from Steinman’s apartment. The imagery and amplified sound become content within the music as it is interpreted through improvisations by the synthesist, John Keston. Keston accompanies the sound features while controlling three analogue synthesizers (Novation Bass Station II, Korg Monotribe, and Korg Volca Keys). This use of an audiovisual score is a means to harness the sensory influence of non-musical sounds and images in our environments, elevating these sources to compositional structures.

Duet for Synthesizers and Mobile Conductor was performed on November 7, 2013 at the Strange Attractors festival, St. Paul, Minnesota. This video was captured during a private performance made shortly after the public showing. The piece is the first in a series of new Duets by Keston made possible by a grant from the American Composers Forum with funds provided by the Jerome Foundation.

Duets Setup

The shot above shows the setup I chose to use for this project. Although it is possible to synchronize these instruments, for this piece I decided to run them independently creating poly-temporal accompaniment for the atemporal audio I received from Steinman’s mobile conducting. Multiple free-running clocks were involved. For example, on the Bass Station II there are two LFOs, BPM for the arpeggiator and sequencer, and the second oscillator can be routed to modulate the the filter frequency. Both the Monotribe and the Volca also have BPM for their sequencers and a free-running LFO. In addition the Volca and Memory Man delays produced unsynchronized repetitions. All of these independent time sources helped create chaotic, non-interlocking rhythms that mimic and/or contrast the audiovisual score.

Mobile Rig

The sound and video from the mobile conductor was broadcast via UStream using a Logitech Broadcaster camera. This technique makes it possible for the mobile conductor to choose content for the piece from anywhere with internet access and still perform in near real-time with the ensemble. This made our performances with DKO at Northern Spark 2013 and WAM Bash 2013 possible. It also means that the quality of the video and audio from the broadcast is limited. Other examples of Duets (Duet Under Bridge, Duet for Synthesizer and Spin Cycle, Duet for Synthesizer and Rail Cars) do not have this requirement and do-have/will-have better sound and video quality than the Instant Cinema series.

QuNexus with Korg Monotribe and Volca Keys Demo

Posted on November 4, 2013 by John C.S. Keston

Here’s a quick demonstration on how to use the QuNexus to play the Korg Monotribe. To duplicate this technique you will need to update the Monotribe to version 2.10 or later then connect a TRRS mini jack to the sync in port on the Monotribe (tip is gate and the second ring is CV). All the cables you need are in the QuNexus cable kit. I also synched-up the Volca Keys for a simple chord progression. The parts on the Monotribe and Volca were recorded with “flux” mode. This is simply Korg’s term for non-quantized recording. Without “flux” mode on the parts would be made up entirely of 1/8th or 1/16th notes depending on the settings of each instrument (the Volca Keys can also do quarter notes on the 1/4 mode).