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…]
The Lewis Glucksman Gallery presents a performance of solo guitar improvisations by Han-earl Park. The event begins at 6:00pm and admission is free.
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park’s playing has been described by Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, New York) as “careful, crafty and well-played with that restrained yet fractured guitar that sounds so good,” and as “beautiful music, incredibly focused” by Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve / Punos Music). Park has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries, concert halls, and (ad-hoc) alternative spaces in Denmark, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA.
He is involved in ongoing collaborations with Bruce Coates, and with Franziska Schroeder, fifteen year long associations with Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell. Recent performances include ensemble Mathilde 253 (Park, Charles Hayward and Ian Smith) with Lol Coxhill, a concert with Paul Dunmall, with Kato Hideki and Katie O’Looney, an improvisative meeting with Thomas Buckner and Jesse Ronneau, and the performance of Pauline Oliveros’ ‘Droniphonia’ alongside the composer. He has appeared at festivals including Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), Sonorities (Belfast) and VAIN Live Art (Oxford).
Park founded and curates Stet Lab, a monthly improvised music space in Cork, Ireland, and teaches improvisation at the UCC School of Music.
Born out of an opportunity to explore the spontaneous mashup of avant-rock, African-American creative musics, European free improvisation and noise, Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith) debuted at Cafe OTO (London) in April 2010. Featuring special guest Lol Coxhill, the ensemble weaved a performance of physical virtuosity and humorous sound poetics; a patchwork of restraint, subtlety and recklessness.
A playful collision of personal, social and musical histories, Mathilde 253 is a site where tradition and idiom are not straightjackets nor limitations, but playgrounds for real-time (re)inventions and (re)configurations.
