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 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)
Pay What You Want for Precambrian Resonance
Ostracon Debut Excerpt: Photon Coercion
Ostracon Debut: Unauthorized Modifications
Short Circuit Videos
Ostraka at Short Circuit
