About John CS Keston
John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research.
John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.
Yesterday I got up at 4:00am to fly to Seattle for the holidays. It being one of the busiest times of the year, the airport was jam packed and chaotic. When I was finally settled on the plane and off the ground I cued up Boards of Canada on my iPod to drown out the sound around me.
I personally like listening to Secede — especially “Depart and Arrive” which even contains samples of somebody going on a plane trip.
Other than that, I usually don’t even bring an mp3 player when traveling, instead I cook up some of my own music on my Nintendo DS. ;)
If you enjoyed Boards of Canada, you should have checked out Explosions in the Sky or perhaps The Album Leaf. I’m not traveling right now, but have thoroughly been enjoying their sounds for awhile now and highly recommend!
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Yanqui U.X.O. tops my list, though old stuff like Massive Attack’s Blue Lines and Aphex Twin’s Ambient Volumes are nice as well. I second Explosions in the Sky. If I’m feeling rhythmic I pick up some Arovane.
Music for 18 Musicians for that relaxed yet alert state that lets you rest while not spacing you out to the point that you forget luggage or miss a flight.
During landing I have often found myself to enjoy Burial very much. Especially when landing when it is very dark outside.
For falling asleep on long flights, I think podcasts such as This American Life works very well.
Telefon Tel Aviv
Lusine
Deru
I’m a stressed out traveler, so the more ambient/pretty IDM stuff is good to calm me down, that and an adult beverage helps too.
If I’m not really feeling electronica Sigur Ros works well, and yes, Explosions in The Sky.
+1 on everything so far but depending on how I’m traveling I dig Kraftwerk. Autobahn is a great driving song as is Tour De France. (not to mention a lot of their other stuff)
I like deepchord for travelling, especially when flying. All the noise washes mask out or blend with the noise of the plane. It’s like a cosy aural sleeping bad.
oops typo… I obviously meant sleeping bag
Go on Last.fm and listen to Explosions in the Sky recommendations radio, and find nice bands like Yndi Halda, Daturah, and Evpatoria Report.
Love Telefon. Just discovered Deru and will have to checkout Lusine.
Ah yes, Kraftwerk. Saw them in concert last year. What a blast!
Ive composed a list of travelling music in relationship to the type of transportation I’ve used:
Bus: Modest Mouse
Foot: Bonobo
Subway/Train: Girl Talk
Airplane: I am Winter Nights
For whatever reason these are my top travel music …
Music For Airports!
Aphex Twin’s Drukqs (and band playlist on my iPod)
Roxy Music best of …
Alex Empire’s The Destroyer (and ATR band playlist on my iPod)
Wu-Tang Clan’s Enter the Wu-Tang
*Alec Empire … not Alex Empire
Old school jazz such as Billie Holiday. I find anything electronic actually becomes grating on my ears when I’m in “industrial” environments.
The right jazz makes great traveling music. I often revert to Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, or Bill Evans to name a few.
I was just turned on to Boards of Canada the other day, as a matter of fact. My preferred traveling music is another Warp Records artist Squarepusher. Can’t get enough smooth jazzy drum and bass.
BOC. “In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country”. I could drive across Alaska, Siberia, even West Oakland and feel like cruise control….
Pixies, “All Over The World”.
I like to listen to Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning.