Shifting and switching from No Wave skronk to interstellar guitarist-as-drummer virtuosity, from stampedes of miniature Pomeranian Buffalos to All-You-Zombies heterophonies, Han-earl Park (박한얼) has been performing beautifully messy, joyously difficult, ambiguous and discordant improvised musics for over twenty years. Park is the mastermind behind ensembles including Eris 136199 with Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky; Juno 3 with Lara Jones and Pat Thomas; and Gonggong 225088 with Yorgos Dimitriadis and Camila Nebbia; and performs as part of a duo with Richard Barrett. [More…]
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
Han-earl Park é daqueles músicos guiados por uma insatisfação permanente. Cada novo projeto a que se dedica é uma nova oportunidade para testar, com um empenho quase científico, os limites da melodia, do noise e da noção ciber-futurista da música que leva para palco. Em Eris 136199, o mistério começa desde logo na designação, alastrando depois à relação desafiante que a sua guitarra estabelece com o saxofone de Catherine Sikora e com a guitarra de Nick Didkovsky (fundador e líder do grupo Dr. Nerve, nome de referência da cena vanguardista da Downtown nova-iorquina). [Read the rest…]
Come along and hear what this gentlest of riotous ensembles can do is a beautifully acoustic environment. [Get tickets…]
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
Predilections, appetites, egos, histories and traditions? Can choices be apt to the point of prescient, or left-field to the point of inappropriate? What do I hope audiences get from my music? Does Jeff VanderMeer make another appearance in one of my interviews? and do I reveal myself a Marxist? Find out in Other Side Of The Tracks: Artist Q&A with Han-Earl Park, Eris 136199:
How would you describe the type of music that Eris 136199 creates?
Noisy. Discordant. Melodious. Pretty in its own not alway predictable way. And by discordant, I don’t mean in terms of harmonic intervals, but in terms of on-stage, real-time musical interactions; in terms of a kind of heterogeneity of idiom and tradition. For me, Eris’ is a music that doesn’t desire to create, necessarily, a synthesis or a coherence or even an agreement, but one which trusts, and takes pleasure, in interaction itself. It’s a music that’s, in a way, compromised, or a music which is a succession of collisions—of idioms, of traditions, of histories, of desires, of tactics. But the music creates a situation that is, in its own way, beautiful. [Read the rest…]
Many thanks to Caitriona O’Mahony at the Improvised Music Company for the questions.
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
This Thursday (August 8, 2019), at 8:00pm: get an earful of improvised goodness as Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) launch their second European mini-tour with a performance at the Vortex Jazz Club (11 Gillett Square, London N16 8AZ). It’s the first time we get to present our real-time collisions of awesome melodic logic, glitch’n’riff anthems, and systems music to London, Lisbon and Dublin. As Nick wrote before our previous tour:
I have never been able to detect any implicit rules, favorite things to do, implied directions, or aesthetic goals in this band. People start playing, they stop, start again, stop again… insofar as music is a temporal art, that’s pretty elemental behavior, and is about the only binding agreement in Eris 136199 that I have detected. Which I recognize is barely a statement, as the passage of time is inviolable in all contexts, be they free or restrictive. Physics doesn’t care. But Eris cares a lot. Time is a precious thing to Han and Catherine, and the action of scattering sound onto it is a sacred and mysterious ritual. [Read the rest…]
Am I excited? That’d be an understatement. Come and catch Eris in play, and, to quote a Jazz Noise, let the “insane brain surgeon in through your ear.” [Get tickets…] [Special offer…]
Eris 136199 is also performing…
August 11: Lisbon, Portugal; and August 12: Dublin, Ireland. [Details…]
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
Formed in New York in 2012, Eris 136199 is the quick-reacting cyborg virtuosity of Han-earl Park (Sirene 1009), the mighty melodic imagination and big tenor sound of Catherine Sikora (Clockwork Mercury), and the diamond-cut precision and grind-meets-experimentalism of Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve). Eris 136199’s music has been hailed as “a beautiful noise” (KFJC 89.7 FM) and “exquisitely constructed, spontaneously messed-up, endless depth, kind of like letting an insane brain surgeon in through your ear” (a Jazz Noise).
Eris 136199 released their second album in 2018, the eponymous Eris 136199 (BAF001, 2018), funded by a successful Kickstarter campaign. The followup to their debut Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559, 2015), the album captures the trio during the 2017 European tour. In August 2019, the trio will again tour Europe, performing in Jazz em Agosto (Lisbon) as well as in London and Dublin.
Han-earl Park is the instigator and mastermind behind Eris 136199, as well as groups including Sirene 1009 (with Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh), and co-conspirator in projects with Richard Barrett and others. Park is the constructor of the machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++, and of Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Josh Sinton, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Gino Robair, Tim Perkis, Andrew Drury, Pat Thomas and Franziska Schroeder. His ensembles have performed at festivals including Freedom of the City (London), Brilliant Corners (Belfast), ISIM (New York), CEAIT (Los Angeles) and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam).
Saxophonist, improviser and composer Catherine Sikora works in a broad range of settings, from highly complex composed music, to folk songs, to free improvisation. She works regularly with Eric Mingus, Enrique Haneine, Brian Chase, Han-earl Park, Stanley Zappa, Christopher Culpo and Ross Hammond, as well as actively pursuing solo performance. In recent years Sikora has toured in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia. She was a featured soloist in Eric Mingus’ radical reimagining of Tommy by the Who (Adelaide Festival 2015), and was artist in residence at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris in 2014, working on a project inspired by stories from her female ancestors.
Guitarist, composer, and computer music programmer Nick Didkovsky has composed music for Kathleen Supove, Ethel, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Meridian Arts Ensemble, New Century Players, ARTE Quartett, as part of the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, and his own bands Doctor Nerve, Vomit Fist, Häßliche Luftmasken, and others. His compositions and guitar performances appear on more than 50 records. His 2015 residency at The Stone in NYC resulted in numerous premiere performances of new works. His avant- metal big band Doctor Nerve has, over its 30 year history, released nine albums, and performed at numerous festivals including FI- MAV, Moers Festival, Musique Action, Creative Time, MIMI Festival, and ‘Whitney Live’ at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
I’ve collated material on io 0.0.1 beta++ (including audio and visual material, source code, and written pieces), and created a selective index of documentation on the construction of, and performance of and with, this machine musician:
io 0.0.1 beta++ is an interactive, semiautonomous technological artifact that, in partnership with its human associates, performs a deliberately amplified staging of a socio-technical network—a network in which the primary protocol is improvisation. Together the cyborg ensemble explores the performance of identities, hybrids and relationships, and highlights the social agency of artifacts, and the social dimension of improvisation. Engineered by Han-earl Park, io 0.0.1 beta++ is a descendant, and significant re-construction, of his previous machine musicians, and it builds upon the work done with, and address some of the musical and practical problems of, these previous artifacts.
Standing as tall as a person, io 0.0.1 beta++ whimsically evokes a 1950s B-movie robot, constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware and missile switches. It celebrates the material and corporeal; embracing the localized and embodied aspects of sociality, performance and improvisation.
Han-earl Park (guitar) as part of Improvised & Experimental No. 73. Also on the program: Simona Blahutová (sound installation), Gloria Damijan (toy piano), and Johnny Chang (viola). Donations €5–10.
[Hošek page…]
Han-earl Park é daqueles músicos guiados por uma insatisfação permanente. Cada novo projeto a que se dedica é uma nova oportunidade para testar, com um empenho quase científico, os limites da melodia, do noise e da noção ciber-futurista da música que leva para palco. Em Eris 136199, o mistério começa desde logo na designação, alastrando depois à relação desafiante que a sua guitarra estabelece com o saxofone de Catherine Sikora e com a guitarra de Nick Didkovsky (fundador e líder do grupo Dr. Nerve, nome de referência da cena vanguardista da Downtown nova-iorquina). [Read the rest…]
I am super excited to finally be able to announce this performance, and the first details of this discordant trio’s triumphant return! I am very proud of this group and the noise we make, and so very, very grateful to be making more noise for you. Thank you so much. See you in August!
Track listing: Therianthropy I (≥ 3:43), Therianthropy II (8:56), Therianthropy III (3:55), Therianthropy IV (6:30), Adaptive Radiation I (6:44), Adaptive Radiation II (8:48), Adaptive Radiation III (5:54), Universal Greebly (10:58), Hypnagogia I (8:03), Hypnagogia II (4:45). Total duration ≥ 68:25.
Described as a ‘musical philosopher’ and ‘delightful shape-shifter,’ guitarist Han-earl Park is no stranger to the FUAIM series, having last performed at UCC with his ground-breaking ensemble, Sirene 1009, back in Spring 2017.
We are delighted to welcome him back this Friday for a solo concert that promises to be a ‘revelatory listening experience that infuses modern aesthetics with the spirit of the ancient.’ Please join us!
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) has been crossing borders and performing fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, always traditional, open improvised musics for twenty years. As soloist, he has performed in recent years in New York, Munich, Seoul and elsewhere, and his ensembles have performed across Europe and the USA.
Park is the instigator and mastermind behind ensembles such as Eris 136199 (with Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky) and Sirene 1009 (with Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh), and co-conspirator in projects with Richard Barrett and others. Park is the constructor of the machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++, and of Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Lol Coxhill, Ingrid Laubrock, Josh Sinton, Gino Robair, Louise D.E. Jensen, Pat Thomas and Franziska Schroeder. His ensembles have performed at festivals including Freedom of the City (London), Brilliant Corners (Belfast), ISIM (New York), CEAIT (Los Angeles) and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam).
“Guitarist Han-earl Park is a musical philosopher…. Expect unexpected things from Park, who is a delightful shape-shifter….”
Brian Morton (Point of Departure)
“Though short, percussive, hard-to-notate sounds dominate Han-earl Park’s sound, he does utilize the totality of the guitar’s sonorities—just not in the proportions demanded by the nostalgic (retrospective, reactionary, etc.) owners of major media….”
Stanley Zappa (The New York City Jazz Record)
“A colorful, sometimes violent and revelatory listening experience that infuses modern aesthetics with the spirit of the ancient.”
