A new cassettes run of Ostracon’s debut release, Unauthorized Modifications is now available. The cassettes are professionally duplicated at the proper length on each side. They will available at Ostracon shows and select local record stores including Shuga Records in Northeast Minneapolis. If you are in the area please stop in and pick one up. Priced at $5.00 they are less expensive than the $8.00 electronic version included as a free download with each tape! So far we have no plans to ship tapes my mail, but we might sell a limited run on the site if persuaded by our customers. Please let us know if you are interested!

Ostracon is performing this Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at the Honey Lounge in Minneapolis. Master modular maestro, Low-Gain, shares the bill. The new cassettes will be on sale at the show for $5 (includes a free download code) and if you are one of the 25 customers who bought the previous cassette, bring it to the show and we will swap it with a new one for free!

Here’s a sample from Ostracon’s performance at their release show on June 24, 2011:
Ostracon Release Show Segment 3

This ethereal segment from the Ostracon release show contains a combination of an evolving pad with a bouncy arpeggiated line that were both produced during the performance on the Roland MKS-80driven by GMS.

Ostracon Release Show Segment 2

The debut Ostracon album, Unauthorized Modifications, that we release last week has been reviewed quite favorably on the popular music blog, Reviler.org. Click the link for details. Here’s another sample of music from our release show last Friday.

Ostracon Release Show Segment 1

Unearthed Music is giving away a free track from the album Unauthorized Modifications by Ostracon (John Keston on electronics and Graham O’Brien on drums). This album was recorded and mixed at by Adam Krinsky at the former Flyte Tyme studios and mastered by Tom Garneau of Audioactive.

To get the free track Probability Defect visit the release page and enter your email address in the box in the lower right of the screen. You will then receive an email message with a unique link to download the track at 320kbps. Please let us know here what you think of it and join us for the release show on Friday, June 24, 2011.

This is one of many GMS driven MKS-80 clips that John Keston recorded into his Live set during the Ostracon performance last night. We have video from several cameras and a multitrack recording of the event, so keep an eye out for a live show video soon.

MKS-80 GMS Clip

After a few hiccups we have finally finished producing our limited run of cassettes. We only have 25 instead of the 50 we had planned, but all the j-cards and labels are printed so we can produce more quickly if need be. Each cassette contains a unique download code for multi-platform listening. A big thanks goes out to Unearthed Music designer Benjamin Montag for his design work and assembly. Also, major thanks to Wes without whom it would have never happened. Finally, thanks to Chris for the inspiration. For now, to get a cassette you will have to show up to the release show tomorrow night. Later on we may consign a few at local stores, but this media is for local consumption only.

Unauthorized Modifications was written and produced by John Keston (that’s me) and Graham O’Brien. The album was recorded, engineered and mixed by Adam Krinsky and mastered by Tom Garneau. For the release show performance John Keston has opted to christen my Super Jupiter Roland MKS-80 for it’s first live show since John has owned it. Here’s an example of what John has been getting out of it and the GMS during his practice sessions.

Evolving MKS-80 Pad Driven by GMS

Photon Coercion – Ostracon from Unearthed Music on Vimeo.

Photon Coercion is the second track from the debut album by Ostracon titled Unauthorized Modifications. The video is a compilation of footage from the “light controllers” that John Keston uses to generate the music using the GMS. The album will be released electronically tomorrow, Tuesday, June 21, 2011 and available from all the major electronic outlets as well as directly from Unearthed Music. Also, please join Ostracon for the release show on Friday, June 24, 2011 featuring Dosh, Ostracon, Smyth, Ghostband, and live painting by Rogue Citizen.

Here’s an excerpt from the fifth track on the upcoming release, Unauthorized Modifications by Ostracon. John Keston and Graham O’Brien will be celebrating the release with a live performance at the Honey Lounge in Minneapolis on June 24, 2011. Artists performing with Ostracon at the event include Dosh, Smyth, and Ghostband. Rogue Citizen will be doing live painting during the performance for added visual stimulus.

Dwarf Plutocracy (Excerpt)

Here’s an excerpt from the fourth track on our upcoming Ostracon album Unauthorized Modifications. The full track was released last September as a give away for the In/Out Festival, but since then it has been remastered.

Entropy Procedure (Excerpt)

Here’s a nearly two minute long excerpt from the third track, titled Particle Agent from our upcoming Ostracon debut, Unauthorized Modifications. The following description of the album from the press release offers insight into how this album was produced. (Photo of Graham O’Brien with Ostracon at the In/Out Festival in NYC, courtesy of inoutfest.org)

Ostracon is producer John Keston (AudioCookbook.org) on electronics and drummer Graham O’Brien (No Bird Sing). No keyboards are used in their music. Instead, Keston uses his custom sequencing software and hand manipulated light controllers to convert projected video signals into a stream of generative melodic structures. During their performances and recording sessions the visuals, electronics, and synchronized drumming are interwoven creating ephemeral structures that are familiar yet never repeated outside of each composition. O’Brien’s percussive statements firmly place the work into a non-linear landscape, grounded in an impossible to categorize igneous crust. UNAUTHORIZED MODIFICATIONS includes six pieces recorded and mixed at the former Flyte Tyme studios by Adam Krinsky. The the tracks, interspersed with angular melodic passages, sound mysterious, organic, and periodically invoke dystopian imagery.

Particle Agent (excerpt)