performance: Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora and Josh Sinton at Harvestworks, New York

Free play meets social engineering? ‘Glorious noise’? Anti-structures? Willful complexity? An orchestrated, real-time, interactive collision between the cyborgism of guitarist Han-earl Park, and the incomparably original melodic and timbral sensibilities of saxophonist Catherine Sikora and saxophonist-clarinetist Josh Sinton. The trio will render into music, Metis 9, a collection of improvisative tactics, and higher-level interactive macros for group improvisation.

An orchestrated, real-time, interactive collision between the cyborgism of guitarist Han-earl Park, and the incomparably original melodic and timbral sensibilities of saxophonist Catherine Sikora and saxophonist-clarinetist Josh Sinton. The trio will render into music, Metis 9, a collection of improvisative tactics, and higher-level interactive macros for ensemble performance designed, designated and specified by Han-earl Park.

Metis 9 has ‘glorious noise’ or ‘frenzy’ at its root, yet it is not so much structuring the noise as it is a meta-layer of complexity that performers can introduce at will. Metis 9 does not tell the performer what to play, or provide all the details of how to interact, but it is an auxiliary network protocol for interactive possibilities. Group improvisation is always the primary protocol; Metis 9 provides secondary or tertiary tactics that create an additional focused complexity. The decision for each bloop and bleep is still retained by the ensemble. These macros enable specific interactionist schemes to be expressed in an open improvisative context; it is improvisative play channeled by group consent.