Next week (Thursday, June 15, 2023) at 10:00pm (doors: 9:30pm): Han-earl Park (guitar) and Sanja Star (sonic illustration) perform together for the first time! The performance is part of das Ende. ° #003 at K77 (Kastanienallee 77, 10435 Berlin: inside the Hinterhof, entrance downstairs). Also performing is Eric Wong (laptop and bluetooth speakers).
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [Facebook event…]
| date | venue | time | details |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 15, 2023 | K77 Kastanienallee 77 10435 Berlin Germany |
10:00pm (doors: 9:30pm) | Han-earl Park (guitar) and Sanja Star (sonic illustration) perform as part of das Ende. ° #003. Also performing: Eric Wong (laptop and bluetooth speakers). €10–15 at the door. [Details…] [Facebook event…] |
| October 13, 2023 | KM28 Karl-Marx-Str. 28 12043 Berlin Germany |
TBC | New work composed and performed by Han-earl Park (guitar and videography). Also performing and presenting: Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet and videography). Details to follow… |
| November 12, 2023 | Venue TBC Newcastle England |
TBC | Han-earl Park (guitar), Lara Jones (saxophone and electronics) and Pat Thomas (electronics). Details to follow… |
| November 13, 2023 | Cafe OTO 18–22 Ashwin Street Dalston London E8 3DL England |
8:00pm | Han-earl Park (guitar), Lara Jones (saxophone and electronics) and Pat Thomas (electronics). £14, £12 advance, £7 members. [OTO page/tickets…] |
Continue reading “Performance diary (Berlin, London and Newcastle) 060323”
A ‘first-take’ ditty (it’s been a while since I posted a straightforward improvisation without any videographic or compositional concerns). I think maybe the first thirty seconds or so is a bit shaky, but I’m pretty happy with my playing here overall. I think it shows what I’ve been interested in, and working on, in regards to my approach to the guitar in the context of improvisation.
And a big, big thanks again to Musikfonds / Neustart Kultur for enabling me to continue, and build-on, these studies.
Of Life, Recombinant (NEWJAiM9) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar) with Anne Wellmer (voice on track 4).
Track listing: Game: Mutation (5:38); Naught Opportune (≥ 10:42); Are Variant (≥ 8:06); Of Life, Recombinant (≥ 29:22). Total duration ≥ 53:48.
© 2021 NEWJAiM Recordings.
℗ 2021 Han-earl Park.
Thursday, April 20, 2023, at 8:00pm: Han-earl Park (guitar) and Yorgos Dimitriadis (percussion and electronics) perform as part of DISSIDENTS XXXVIII at PAS (Kaiserin Augusta Allee 101, 10553 Berlin). Also performing are Hada Benedito (piano), Kellen Mills (bass) and Lorena Izquierdo (action voice); Teresa Riemann (drums, vocals and effects); and Laura Zöschg (piano and voices).
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [PAS page…] [Facebook event…]
Audio/image credits: Music by Han-earl Park and Yorgos Dimitriadis. © + ℗ 2021 Han-earl Park and Yorgos Dimitriadis. Photos © Photomusix/Cristina Marx (YD) and Jazz em Agosto/Petra Cvelbar (HeP). All rights reserved.
Big thanks to Musikfonds / Neustart Kultur for enabling me to continue, and build-on, these studies.
Of Life, Recombinant (NEWJAiM9) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar) with Anne Wellmer (voice on track 4).
Track listing: Game: Mutation (5:38); Naught Opportune (≥ 10:42); Are Variant (≥ 8:06); Of Life, Recombinant (≥ 29:22). Total duration ≥ 53:48.
© 2021 NEWJAiM Recordings.
℗ 2021 Han-earl Park.
| date | venue | time | details |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 20, 2023 | PAS Kaiserin Augusta Allee 101 10553 Berlin Germany |
8:00pm | Han-earl Park (guitar) and Yorgos Dimitriadis (percussion and electronics) perform as part of DISSIDENTS XXXVIII. Also performing: Hada Benedito (piano), Kellen Mills (bass) and Lorena Izquierdo (action voice); Teresa Riemann (drums, vocals and effects); and Laura Zöschg (piano and voices). [Details…] [PAS page…] [Facebook event…] |
| October 2023 (TBA) | KM28 Karl-Marx-Str. 28 12043 Berlin Germany |
TBC | New work composed and performed by Han-earl Park (guitar and videography). Also performing and presenting: Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet and videography). Details to follow… |
| November 2023 (TBA) | Venue TBC Newcastle England |
TBC | Han-earl Park (guitar), Lara Jones (saxophone and electronics) and Pat Thomas (electronics). Details to follow… |
| November 2023 (TBA) | Cafe OTO 18–22 Ashwin Street Dalston London E8 3DL England |
TBC | Han-earl Park (guitar), Lara Jones (saxophone and electronics) and Pat Thomas (electronics). Details to follow… |
Continue reading “Performance diary (Berlin, London and Newcastle) 031523”
Tomorrow (Tuesday, February 14, 2023), at 8:00pm: as part of Improvisierte Musik in der REH, Han-earl Park (guitar) and Marie Takahashi (viola) perform at REH (Kopenhagener Straße 17, 10437 Berlin). Also performing are Axel Dörner (trumpet) and Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet); and Diego Kohn (violin) and Lorena Izquierdo Aparicio (voice/performance). [Facebook event…]
| date | venue | time | details |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 14, 2023 | REH Kopenhagener Straße 17 10437 Berlin Germany |
8:00pm | Han-earl Park (guitar) and Marie Takahashi (viola) as part of Improvisierte Musik in der REH. Also performing: Axel Dörner (trumpet) and Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet); and Diego Kohn (violin) and |
| October 2023 (TBA) | KM28 Karl-Marx-Str. 28 12043 Berlin Germany |
TBC | New work composed and performed by Han-earl Park (guitar and videography). Also performing and presenting: Carina Khorkhordina (trumpet and videography). Details to follow… |
| November 2023 (TBA) | Venue TBC Newcastle England |
TBC | Han-earl Park (guitar), Lara Jones (saxophone and electronics) and Pat Thomas (electronics). Details to follow… |
| November 2023 (TBA) | Cafe OTO 18–22 Ashwin Street Dalston London E8 3DL England |
TBC | Han-earl Park (guitar), Lara Jones (saxophone and electronics) and Pat Thomas (electronics). Details to follow… |
Continue reading “Performance diary (Berlin, London and Newcastle) 012123”
What is distance?
What is perspective?
What is that gaze?
What is that absence? [Read the rest…]
If you’ve missed them, the previous fourteen miniatures in the series were posted on Facebook and on Twitter.
Of Life, Recombinant (NEWJAiM9) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar) with Anne Wellmer (voice on track 4).
Track listing: Game: Mutation (5:38); Naught Opportune (≥ 10:42); Are Variant (≥ 8:06); Of Life, Recombinant (≥ 29:22). Total duration ≥ 53:48.
© 2021 NEWJAiM Recordings.
℗ 2021 Han-earl Park.
A new galaxy in Park’s universe? David Lynch vs. Andrei Tarkovsky? And what’s hidden that will be unearthed? Lee Rice Epstein reviews Of Life, Recombinant (NEWJAiM9) in Free Jazz:
Of Life, Recombinant tells multiple stories at once, opening up a wide aperture and displaying stunningly drawn vistas. The four-song suite makes for a fantastic headphone album, as small details invite your attention ever more deeply throughout…. The fugue-like state is but one-layer of Park’s suite. As they progress, ‘Game: Mutation,’ ‘Naught Opportune,’ ‘Are Variant,’ and the 30-minute ‘Of Life, Recombinant’ continually pitch one direction, pivot on multiple axes, and branch out in new directions. That’s true as much for the sonics—with pre-recorded material mixed and matched over itself—as it is for the emotional throughlines, in some cases leading listeners down long corridors of chilly anticipation, in others playing up the subtle intimacy of quiet tones…. And unmistakably, Park’s guitar is itself a treasure chest of delights—long, thrilling sections of beauty fold into chilly, dread-inducing dreamscapes, each of which will enchant and delight in equal measure. [Read the rest…]
[About this album…] [Get the CD/download from NEWJAiM (Bandcamp)…] [All reviews…]
Elsewhere, J. Vognsen, writing in Perfect Sound Forever, asked composers and performers (including myself) for our thoughts on failure in the context of creative work: “Why does some music end up not in the ears of listeners but in the dustbin, or perhaps never leaving the mind of the creator in the first place?”
Every piece I do leaves behind detritus of a creative life: abandoned exercises, studies, mockups, etcetera. A lot of my time and energy as a performer, specifically as an improviser, is spent in preparation; off-stage, in practice and in study. Testing things out, sometimes speculatively, sometimes with a particular goal in mind, sometimes creating studies to more clearly define a problem or problematic; these exercises and studies can help me hone in on a particular technique or strategy, they can help me discover better ways of getting from A-to-B….
But sometimes the creative detritus can be unplanned and have a greater impact—a greater impact on energy expended, on time and effort. [Read the rest…]
The piece is very much worth reading. In particular, I enjoyed reading, and really related to, Carla Kihlstedt’s take (“my creative failures… fall into three basic categories: The Hollow, The Half-baked and The Missed Marks”), and Nick Didkovsky’s telling of The CHORD Origin Story is a total blast.
If you enjoyed that piece, please also check out some of my recent written work including ‘Broken Families: Collectivism, Violence, Imagined Utopias and Improvisation,’ and my reflections on working through times of uncertainty, anxiety, and of doubt.
Celebrate 10 years of Eris 136199 with the trio’s new EP, 𝑿: Eris 136199 Decennial!
On May 27, 2012 at ABC No Rio, NYC, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and I took the stage for the first time as a trio. Ten years later, in celebration of this ensemble, Catherine, Nick and I have created a long-distance improvisative collage.
Download: €3.00 minimum (‘name your price’).
EP available to stream via the free Bandcamp app, and to download in multiple formats including lossless.
I recall the exact moment I knew this group was something special, when, fifteen minutes into the 40 minute improvisation, the broken-machinery-rattle-buzzes-and-bumps of the guitars were joined by the melismatic lines of the soprano saxophone. And the trio refused to collapse that juxtaposition—letting that idiomatic dissonance remain standing—creating its own logic by force-of-will.
— Han-earl Park
Ten years ago, May 27, 2012, at ABC No Rio in the Lower East Side, Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky took the stage for the first time as a trio. Before the events of 2020, the plan had been for the trio, after the release of a new album, to go on tour. But, as the rogue piece of genetic material danced its dance with humanity, the trio had to rethink that plan.
Park selected an excerpt from the recording of the trio’s Derby, 2017 performance to serve as the foundation for a new piece by the trio. He created custom music-minus-one mixes starting with a mix without the saxophone part. Sikora then recorded a new saxophone part. Park then created a mix with this new saxophone part, but without Didkovsky’s 2017 guitar. Didkovsky then recorded a new guitar part, and finally Park recorded a new guitar part to replace his 2017 performance.
So fascinating—it is clearly, undeniably Eris, but also not Eris—the components are all there but the interactions/atmosphere is totally different.
— Catherine Sikora
It’s like peering into a parallel universe and listening to what Eris in that world sounds like.
— Nick Didkovsky
And for the ‘B-side,’ the EP includes a remastered edition of the original source recording made in Derby five years ago.
Eris 136199 plays on the crossroads of noise, melody, rhythm, space, density, contrast, synchronicity, asymmetry, serendipity and contradiction. Eris 136199 is the corporeal, cyborg virtuosity of constructor and guitarist Han-earl Park; the noisy, unruly complexity of composer, computer artist and guitarist Nick Didkovsky; and the no-nonsense melodic logic of composer and saxophonist Catherine Sikora.
Han-earl Park is the instigator and mastermind behind Eris 136199, as well as groups including Sirene 1009 with Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and rit., 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, Ingrid Laubrock, 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, known for her big sound and lyrical melodic work, works as a solo performer and with Eric Mingus, Enrique Haneine, Brian Chase, Han-earl Park, Ethan Winogrand, Christopher Culpo and Ross Hammond. 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 and in 2020.
Guitarist, composer, and computer music programmer Nick Didkovsky has composed music for Kathleen Supové, 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. For over 30 years, his avant-metal big band Doctor Nerve has fueled Didkovsky’s intricate compositions with the energy of rock, punching holes through the walls between heavy metal, contemporary music, and improvisation, and performing at festivals including Moers, FIMAV, and the Whitney Museum’s ‘Whitney Live.’ With computer music pioneer Phil Burk, Didkovsky developed the computer music language Java Music Specification Language (JMSL).
Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophone), and Nick Didkovsky (guitar).
Let 𝑿 (7:56), Problematica I.ii (remastered) (8:34). Total duration: 16:30.
Music by Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky.
Track 1 recorded March and April 2022, New York and Berlin.
Track 2 recorded live November 4, 2017, The Bless, Derby.
Recorded by Eris 136199 (track 1), and by Chris Trent (track 2).
Mixed by Han-earl Park.
Mastered by Chris Sharkey.
Artwork by Han-earl Park with Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky.
Special thanks to Corey Mwamba and Chris Trent. Derby performance presented by Corey Mwamba/OUT FRONT!, and with the awesome support of our Kickstarter backers. Track 2 includes material previously released on the limited edition album Problematica (2018).
© + ℗ 2022 Han-earl Park.
Peculiar Velocities (BAF002) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophone) and Nick Didkovsky (guitar).
Track listing: Ballad of Tensegrity I (≥ 5:12), Ballad of Tensegrity II (2:28), Peculiar Velocities I (3:46), Peculiar Velocities II (3:36), Sleeping Dragon (5:22), D-Loop I (≥ 6:16), D-Loop II (5:13), Polytely I (≥ 5:01), Polytely II: Breakdown (5:33), Anagnorisis I (2:09), Anagnorisis II (2:19). Total duration ≥ 46:54.
© + ℗ 2020 Han-earl Park.
Eris 136199 (BAF001) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophone) and Nick Didkovsky (guitar).
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.
© + ℗ 2018 Han-earl Park.
Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]
Personnel: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar; tracks 1 and 5), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet; tracks 2–4).
Track listing: Monopod (27:19), Pleonasm (Metis 9) (17:08), Flying Rods (Metis 9) (7:41), Hydraphon (7:34), StopCock (10:54). Total duration: 70:33.
© 2015 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.
