For those that don’t know, I founded Stet Lab, a space for improvised music based in Cork. I curated the Lab between 2007 and 2011, and during that time, also wrangled its online presence. In August, I will be removing some of the audio recordings of Stet Lab’s first year (prior to the November 2008 event) from its website. Read more to find out how to save your favorite recordings. [More…]
The Sound Projector: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park
“Amplified Derek Bailey meets Thomas Lehn”? “A lively and sizzling session of fierce interplay… between… two boxing kangaroos”? Ed Pinsent of The Sound Projector reviews Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park’s ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd):
[Han-earl] Park is one of those scary polymath guys who seems to have a tremendous facility for music, both improvising and composing it, and he has played in many groups and at many festivals, appearing around the globe in seemingly ubiquitous fashion. Scariest of all is his intense and speedy guitar technique, which on parts of this album presents a rush of tangled information that would require a bank of dedicated computers to solve it…. Never too “glib” in his phrasing and throws in multiple fishhooks and other barbs to snag our ears, otherwise we might be tempted to switch off in the face of his effortless glides and spiky dense riffs. It’s also good to find him in this duo set-up where the detail of his playing can be more clearly heard than in Mathilde 253. The Englishman Barrett is also a composer, like Park sometimes situated in an academic and teaching context, and is no stranger to using electronics in the live situation having formed the FURT duo with Paul Obermayer as long ago as 1986…. Regardless of whatever intricate and dazzling shapes are thrown at him like crystal spears by his sparring partner, he responds in kind with impossibly twisted gurgles, shrieks and salivated electronic utterances. Throughout album, a lively and sizzling session of fierce interplay is staged between these two boxing kangaroos, with sqwawks and yelps a-plenty as another blow is landed on the respective muzzle or snout. The striking thing is that neither player appears to be breaking into a sweat at any time, and I have the abiding mental image of two unfazed chess players sitting in a deep-freeze unit, weaving complex theorems while remaining almost immobile in large leather armchairs. The music has that degree of rigid control, of brittle precision, even when the structure appears at its maddest and the musical data is flying wildly beyond the point of interpretation. The value of this music as a form of invented language is emphasised by the odd titles, ‘tolur’, ‘tricav’, ‘ankpla’, ‘uettet’… as if counting upwards in Venusian. [Read the rest…]
‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) is available from Creative Sources Recordings. [More info…] [All reviews…] [Get the CD…]
Dalston Sound: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park
In a review that spans Richard Barrett’s Dark Matter and Han-earl Park’s io 0.0.1 beta++, Tim Owen (Dalston Sound) praises Barrett and Park’s ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) for its “multifarious attractions” found in a “wealth of microscopically teeming detail”:
Numbers is a complex melange of retro/futurist synth sounds, glitch electronica, guitar-sourced whammy-bar pitch-bending and hard-scrabble picking over bridge and pickups: a volatile stream of fractal note-data and complex electro-acoustics, all slippery switchbacks and other such abrupt transitions.
This makes for kaleidoscopic music, a rubato flux of superimposed noises in which lightning-fast progression from one galvanising sound event (noise thru silence) to another, and the musicians’ constant attention to overall form, carry far more weight than developmental foresightedness or melodic thrust: it’s music of the moment, a process of constantly tweaked evolutionary recombination.
The duo are tenacious in their work of sonic abiogenesis, and the six Numbers pieces are all longish…. The sound events comprised by tracks like “Ankpla” and “Uettet” are as disjointed as they are contiguous, but the overriding sense impression is that each whole flows nicely, and the album as a whole rewardingly absorbs attention. [Read the rest…]
‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) is available from Creative Sources Recordings. [More info…] [All reviews…] [Get the CD…]
‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) [details…] [all reviews…]
Performers: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). [About this duo…]
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.
io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAMCD 531) [details…] [all reviews…]
Performers: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone). [About this project…]
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
The construction of io 0.0.1 beta++ has been made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland.
recording: Eris 136199, New York
Eris 136199 (Nick Didkovsky: guitar; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Catherine Sikora: saxophones) are recording this evening at NYU. Expect special things from this special ensemble.
Depending on how things go with the recording session (and depending on the traffic in New York), Catherine and I may be at Gowanus Company later tonight at Douglass Street Music Collective. Regardless of our presence, the evening, with performers including Kyoko Kitamura, Dominic Lash, Ingrid Laubrock, Dan Peck, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Patrick Breiner, Tom Blancarte, Sara Schoenbeck, Will McEvoy, Josh Sinton and Aryeh Kobrinsky, promises to be a fun one. Maybe see you there. [DSMC page…]
New York City Jazz Record: Han-earl Park with Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders, with Marian Murray, and with Gargantius Effect
In the April issue of The New York City Jazz Record, Marc Medwin reviews Han-earl Park’s three most recent download releases featuring Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders; Murray Campbell, Randy McKean, Gino Robair and Scott R. Looney; and Marian Murray.
Recommended price: $5+
In the piece, Medwin describes the recording with Marian Murray as the “best way into Park’s protean guitar syntax”:
Park slams through blocks of sound and these deteriorate into shreds and scraps, punctuated with what can only be described as ululations, which become more prominent as things proceed. Park’s often-distorted fingerwork, much of it conjuring shades of the human voice, also references Derek Bailey’s rapid-fire volume shifts and Joe Morris’ fleet runs while sounding like neither. [Read the rest…]
Recommended price: $8+
Gargantius Effect +1 +2 +3 (Nor Cal, 08–2011) with Murray Campbell, Randy McKean, Gino Robair and Scott R. Looney is “something approaching Webern-ian counterpoint” with “always edge-of-seat energetic” improvisations. Gargantius Effect explores:
…The outer limits of timbre, especially on the epic “Old Robots Never Rust”. Campbell’s violin slides are an excellent foil to the more vocal qualities in Park’s improvising, not to mention similar devices used by multi-reedist Randy McKean as the trio converge and diverge in pitch space. [Read the rest…]
Recommended price: $8+
And finally, “closest to free jazz, though not always that close,” is the download album by Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders:
…Eschewing conventional groove but adhering to solos and telepathic communications, conjuring the jazz trio hierarchy as imagined by Albert Ayler. Dunmall even channels some Ayler, his tenor growling and moaning through key moments as Park handles guitar and bass duty simultaneously. Only Sanders’ occasional chiming percussion bespeaks a more contemporary vibe. As always, Park fills out the texture as much or more than do most keyboard instruments, but his playing is never overwhelming and always tasteful. [Read the rest…]
All recordings released under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported Licenses. Please attribute the recordings to the respective performers. All recordings available as ‘name your price’ albums. Although you can download the recording for free (name $0 as your price) with certain restrictions, please consider paying at least the recommended price. Your generosity will help support the performers and their work.
Also available for download [more…]
Jin-Park-Weeter (Cork, 01-24-11) [details…]
Performers: Jin Sangtae (electronics), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Jeffrey Weeter (drums and electronics).
(cc) 2012 Jin Sangtae/Han-earl Park/Jeffrey Weeter.
Park-Schroeder (Cork, 03-26-09) [details…]
Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophone).
(cc) 2012 Han-earl Park/Franziska Schroeder.
Sikora-Smith-Park (Cork, 04-04-11) [details…]
Performers: Catherine Sikora (saxophone), Ian Smith (trumpet) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
(cc) 2012 Catherine Sikora/Ian Smith/Han-earl Park.
Free Form, Free Jazz: Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (Birmingham, 02–15–11)
Great intensity? Baileyanos? How’s your Portuguese? Fabricio Vieira of Free Form, Free Jazz reviews the download album by Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders:
Sax, guitarra e bateria em uma sessão ao vivo de improvisação livre, com muita intensidade conduzida pelos britânicos Paul Dunmal [sic] e Mark Sanders. A eles se juntou o guitarrista Han-earl Park, com seu toque que, em muitos momentos, denuncia ecos de baileyanos. A gig foi registrada em Birmingham, dois anos atrás, e é um exemplar bem vivo e intenso da cena free impro europeia atual. [Read the rest…]
— Fabricio Vieira (Free Form, Free Jazz)
[More about this recording…] [All reviews…]
Also available for download…
Gargantius Effect +1 +2 +3 (Nor Cal, 08-2011) [details…]
Performers: Murray Campbell (violins, oboe and cor anglais), Randy McKean (saxophone, clarinets and flutes) with Han-earl Park (guitar), plus Gino Robair (energized surfaces, voltage made audible) and Scott R. Looney (hyperpiano).
(cc) 2012 Murray Campbell/Randy McKean/Han-earl Park/Gino Robair/Scott R. Looney.
Park+Murray (Cork, 07-29-10) [details…]
Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar) plus Marian Murray (violin).
(cc) 2012 Han-earl Park/Marian Murray.
Jin-Park-Weeter (Cork, 01-24-11) [details…]
Performers: Jin Sangtae (electronics), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Jeffrey Weeter (drums and electronics).
(cc) 2012 Jin Sangtae/Han-earl Park/Jeffrey Weeter.
Park-Schroeder (Cork, 03-26-09) [details…]
Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophone).
(cc) 2012 Han-earl Park/Franziska Schroeder.
Sikora-Smith-Park (Cork, 04-04-11) [details…]
Performers: Catherine Sikora (saxophone), Ian Smith (trumpet) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
(cc) 2012 Catherine Sikora/Ian Smith/Han-earl Park.
an intricate web (audio clip: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park)
By means of an intricate web of sonic hiccups, scrapes, scouring, gluts, gargles and cuts, they build an acoustic lucid computational delirium, whose trajectory is impossible to outguess. [More…]
— Vito Camarretta (Chain D.L.K.)
Second audio except from Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park’s CD, ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) released by Creative Sources Recordings. This clip, with “hiccups, scrapes, scouring, gluts, gargles and cuts,” is taken from the closing track of the album, ‘ll……’. [About the recording…] [About this duo…]
Audio clip courtesy of Creative Sources Recordings.
Music by Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park.
Audio ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings. Please do not distribute audio file, but instead share the link to this page.
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Previous audio excerpts:
frantically jagged (audio clip: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park)
‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) [details…]
Performers: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). [About this duo…]
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.
Free Jazz: Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (Birmingham, 02–15–11)
At Free Jazz Blog, as part of his review of the state of the guitar in the outer realms of improvised music, Paul Acquaro describes Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders’ download album as an “expert lesson on group interplay and spontaneous compositions”.
…[Han-earl] Park’s guitar is sliding and sputtering, delivering accents and tonal clusters neatly between Mark Sanders pulsating percussion and Paul Dunmall’s intense and melodic saxophone work. The three musicians are nicely balanced, each instrument an integral voice in the improvisation. Dunmall is the main voice as the first track picks up, and when Park’s guitar emerges as the driving force, he relies on creating biting textures and rhythmic figures intersecting with percussion.
Sanders and Dunmall are veterans of free jazz and have worked together many times in the past. Here, as usual, Sander’s percussion work is invigorating, pushing the musicians and directing the energy. There are moments where he drops out, or holds back, that reveal how powerful of a presence he is. Dunmall seems to always have the most appropriately unexpected lines, whether the solo voice or providing comping. Park is a newer voice, and he holds his own with this virtuosic crowd. His approach on the electric guitar veers between clean and slightly overdriven tones, and has unique melodic approach, favoring fragments and tonal clusters, often filling in the spaces and painting with contrasting colors. [Read the rest…]
[More about this recording…] [All reviews…]
Also available for download…
Gargantius Effect +1 +2 +3 (Nor Cal, 08-2011) [details…]
Performers: Murray Campbell (violins, oboe and cor anglais), Randy McKean (saxophone, clarinets and flutes) with Han-earl Park (guitar), plus Gino Robair (energized surfaces, voltage made audible) and Scott R. Looney (hyperpiano).
(cc) 2012 Murray Campbell/Randy McKean/Han-earl Park/Gino Robair/Scott R. Looney.
Park+Murray (Cork, 07-29-10) [details…]
Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar) plus Marian Murray (violin).
(cc) 2012 Han-earl Park/Marian Murray.
Jin-Park-Weeter (Cork, 01-24-11) [details…]
Performers: Jin Sangtae (electronics), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Jeffrey Weeter (drums and electronics).
(cc) 2012 Jin Sangtae/Han-earl Park/Jeffrey Weeter.
Park-Schroeder (Cork, 03-26-09) [details…]
Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophone).
(cc) 2012 Han-earl Park/Franziska Schroeder.
Sikora-Smith-Park (Cork, 04-04-11) [details…]
Performers: Catherine Sikora (saxophone), Ian Smith (trumpet) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
(cc) 2012 Catherine Sikora/Ian Smith/Han-earl Park.
frantically jagged (audio clip: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park)
Bazillions of events… for the joy of individuals who take pleasure in getting their brain zapped and scrambled by the rivalry between transonic beauty and extreme structural atomization. This is in fact a full hour of frantically jagged live improvisation…. [More…]
— Massimo Ricci (Touching Extremes)
I’m enormously proud of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd), the duo CD with Richard Barrett released by Creative Sources Recordings, which I feel has some of my best playing on record. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be posting up audio excerpts from the album. The first clip is from the track ‘creens.’ May your brain be “zapped and scrambled” in the best possible way. [About the recording…] [About this duo…]
Audio clip courtesy of Creative Sources Recordings.
Music by Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park.
Audio ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings. Please do not distribute audio file, but instead share the link to this page.
Cannot play audio?
Try loading the original post, and playing back from there. Please contact me if you have further problems.
‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) [details…]
Performers: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). [About this duo…]
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.
Downtown Music Gallery: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park
The “intense exchange between these two gifted improvisers.” Bruce Lee Gallanter of Downtown Music Gallery reviews Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park’s ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd):
Featuring Richard Barrett on electronics and Han-earl Park on guitar. Richard Barrett is a UK composer as well as an improvising electronic musician who plays in Furt, Forch and with Evan Parker, all of whom record for the Psi label. Originally UK-based guitarist Han-earl Park has been living in NY for the past couple of years and working with many Downtown players like Louise Jensen & Michael Evans (who he played with here at DMG last Sunday – 1/20/13), Harris Eisenstadt, Tim Perkis and Anthony Braxton. When Mr. Park was living in the UK, he worked with Paul Dunmall, Charles Hayward and invented a device called io 0.0.1 Beta, that played its own improvisations. An impressive resume for sure. Han-earl left us with this duo effort and I’m glad he did.
I dig the intense exchange between these two gifted improvisers. There are a number of bent sounds which make it hard to determine who is doing what. What electric guitar sounds I recognize are sharp, focused and quickly formed & let loose. Han-earl does not sound like a jazz guitarist and doesn’t play any of those popular licks. More often he is playing a series of broken yet tight phrases which fit perfectly with Mr. Barrett’s more rounded electronics. The fractured phrases that erupt throughout this disc often sound like just one musician playing by himself since we never know where one sound begins or ends or what it will turn into. There are a few rubbed string sounds which remind me of Fred Frith at times but that is the reference I can pull out of my own listening encounters. Otherwise this is duo is completely unique, exciting and engaging.
[Original newsletter…] [DMG catalog page…]
You can get the CD from DMG for a limited time price of $14 (normally $16)!
btw, I have yet to perform with Mr. Braxton (I assume Bruce meant Wadada), and I’m from California, but otherwise the description, especially “fractured phrases that erupt throughout this disc often sound like just one musician playing by himself since we never know where one sound begins or ends or what it will turn into”, is pretty accurate! Thanks for listening, Bruce.
‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) is available from Creative Sources Recordings. [More info…] [All reviews…] [Get the CD…]
thanks: Eris 136199 (Brecht Forum, NYC) and Evans-Jensen-Park (DMG, NYC)
A somewhat belated set of thanks for the gigs on January 13 and January 20, 2013. Very big, big thanks to fellow performers Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora of Eris 136199 (I’ve been told ours was a fantastic performance, I’m very sorry that, zombified with a virus, I have little recollection of it :-/ ), and to Michael Evans and Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen.
Kudos to Ras Moshe and everyone at The Brecht Forum, and to Bruce Gallanter (hey, it was good to talk and catch up, Bruce!) and Manny Maris of Downtown Music Gallery for hosting and curating the events. (And apologies to Ras and the other performers at The Brecht Forum for not being able to stick around for the other sets.) Thanks again to Kevin Reilly for the video documentation of the DMG performance, and thanks, as always, to all who came to listen and witness music in interaction and in real-time.
By the way, ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd), the duo album with Richard Barrett (the one that got selected for Délire actuel’s 2012 Demanding Music Top 30), should now be available from Downtown Music Gallery. [More about this CD…]
CD available: The $100 Guitar Project
Bridge Records has released ‘The $100 Guitar Project’ (BRIDGE 9381A/B). This is what it says on the back of the CD case:
In October of 2010, guitarists Nick Didkovsky and Chuck O’Meara bought a used $100 electric guitar online. They didn’t know what it sounded like or if it even worked, but were charmed by its no-name vibe as were 63 of their guitar-playing friends, each of whom wrote and recorded a piece on it, before passing it on to the next player….
Royalties on every sale of the $100 Guitar Project will be paid directly to CARE, a leading organization fighting global poverty.
The double CD is currently available from Bridge Records, and from one of my favorite stores, Wayside Music. You can also download the digital edition of this recording from iTunes and eMusic.
[$100 Guitar Project website…] [Bridge Records catalog page…] [Discography entry…] [About my track…]