New Release – John C.S. Keston – Consonant Dissonance

On Consonant Dissonance, composer and transdisciplinary artist John C.S. Keston explores the shifting relationship between acoustic performance and real-time electronic transformation. Across a series of improvised works, the sound of a Kawai RX-3 grand piano is continuously sampled, reshaped, and reintroduced through a bespoke modular synthesizer, creating an evolving dialogue between gesture, resonance, and technology.

This release is available on Elektramusic website and on our Bandcamp.

Rather than processing the piano after the fact, Keston performs with the modular system as an active musical partner. Granular synthesis, looping, pitch shifting, reverse playback, analog filtering, delay, and reverberation become integral elements of the improvisation, expanding the instrument’s expressive range while preserving the immediacy of live performance.

Recorded at the University of St. Thomas, Schoenecker Center Audio Studio (Minnesota, USA), Consonant Dissonance reflects Keston’s distinctive practice at the intersection of music, technology, and improvisation. Drawing on his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and video art, he creates works that embrace uncertainty, experimentation, and sonic discovery.

Released by Elektramusic Berlin, Consonant Dissonance is an invitation to hear the piano not as a fixed instrument, but as the starting point for an ever-changing electronic landscape.