performance: Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh at FUAIM, Cork

Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash and Corey Mwamba (Café OTO, London, December 3, 2015). Original photo © 2015 Anton Hunter, additional graphics © 2016 Han-earl Park.
Original photo © 2015 Anton Hunter. Additional graphics © 2016 Han-earl Park.

Friday, January 29, 2016, at 1:10pm: Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass), Mark Sanders (drums) and Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics) presented by FUAIM Music at UCC, perform at the Aula Maxima (University College Cork, Cork). Admission is free.

Hey! I’ll be performing again with Dom, Mark and Caroline—an exemplary group of crafty, noisy, creative musicians. We just came back from a short tour of England, and I am thrilled to be able to bring this ensemble to Cork. (The tour was presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.)

See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [FUAIM page…] [Facebook event…]

updates

01–28-16: sadly, Mark’s flight was cancelled. The performance will go ahead as a trio of Han, Dom and Caroline.

Best of 2015

As previously teased, ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) with Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton makes Avant Music News Best of 2015.

[Avant Music News review…] [All reviews…]

CD cover of ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) with Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton (artwork copyright 2015, Han-earl Park)

Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]

Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet).

© 2015 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.

Plus, A Little Brittle Music by Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash and Corey Mwamba gets an honorable mention in the same list.

‘A Little Brittle Music’ with Han-earl Park, Dominc Lash and Corey Mwamba (artwork copyright 2015, Han-earl Park)

A Little Brittle Music [details…]

Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass) and Corey Mwamba (vibraphone and flute).

© 2015 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2015 Park/Lash/Mwamba.

I’m honored to find my music standing among such amazing creative work! [Avant Music News Best of 2015…]

Elsewhere, the Birmingham, December 1 performance by Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh makes Niluccio on noise’s Top 20 gigs:

Screeching and scraping in an improv style, this quartet assailed the ears with a pleasing melee of noise, some of it vaguely intelligible. Caroline Pugh jabbered away in what sounded like snatches of Greek, while the guitarist Han-earl Park did impossibly intricate yet percussive stuff on his guitar fret. Mad but entertaining. It was in the backroom of a gloomy back-street boozer. When I tentatively asked the elderly landlord “Where’s the jazz tonight?”, he said “I wouldn’t call it jazz. More like a fookin’ racket.” He was right! [Read the rest…]

Culture Ireland logo

Birmingham performance presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.

Happy New Year: 2016

2016 collage

Original photographs/images © 2015 Han-earl Park; © 2015 Translating Improvisation; © 2015 Peter Fay; © 2015 Caroline Pugh; © 2015 65Fen Music Series; and © 2015 Michael Foster.

Anomic Aphasia Berlin Belfast Manchester, Cambridge and London Cork A Little Brittle Music Birmingham, Bristol and London London Brooklyn Birmingham, Bristol, London and Brooklyn Brooklyn (again)

thanks: Park-Lash-Sanders-Pugh (Fizzle, Birmingham; BtB, Bristol; and OTO London), Laubrock-Park (New Revolution Arts, Brooklyn) and Didkovsky-Park-Sinton (65Fen, Brooklyn)

Han-earl Park and Ingrid Laubrock (New Revolution Arts, Brooklyn, December 12, 2015). Photo © 2015 Michael Foster.
Han-earl Park and Ingrid Laubrock (New Revolution Arts, Brooklyn, December 12, 2015). Photo © 2015 Michael Foster.

Five performance this final month of 2015! A great privilege to have shared the stage with so many awesomely creative, smart and generous people. Let’s get to the hat-tips…

Okay, start with a thanks to my co-conspirators, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh, who consistently created fascinating, difficult, infuriating, confounding and beautiful spaces for interaction. Listening to the music play out in real-time, all I could think was that it sounds great whenever the guitarist shuts-up. (As Josh Sinton pointed out later, that’s really a wonderful position to be in; not knowing how to contribute to—to add to—an already perfect ensemble at play.)

Thanks to Ingrid Laubrock for the play—it was great to come-off a… logistically challenging set of gigs into a relaxed performance where, well, anything might happen… and we ended up in some interesting and unexpected places. (Felt very good about this one.)

To Josh Sinton and Nick Didkovsky, well… That. Was. A. Blast. …Thanks, Josh, Nick, for the Loud Jazz (best possible sense!).

Big thanks to all the venues and promoters, DIYers and supporters: to the indefatigable Andrew Woodhead at Fizzle; to Seth Cooke and everyone at Bang the Bore for an awesome event; to Fielding Hope, Oli Barrett and everyone at Cafe OTO for their support, and for their patience with all the ups’n’downs; to Josh and everyone at 65Fen Music Series; and to Cisco Bradley for inviting me to perform at New Revolution Arts (a beautiful space—socially, musically).

Thanks to Tom Durham the gentleman who lent me his amplifier in Birmingham (sorry, can’t remember your name!), and to Andrew Drury and Chris Welcome who did the same in Brooklyn—y’all made my travels so much more pleasant!

The tour by my ensemble with Dom, Mark and Caroline was made possible with funding from Culture Ireland, and I am extremely grateful for their support.

I am also grateful to Franziska Schroeder, Elspeth Murray, Helen Petts, ODD7’s Towards the Margins, London Korea Links, and Alma Ní Choigligh of Embassy of Ireland (London) who all helped to spread the word of the performances. A special thanks to Cath Roberts of LUME, Avant Music News, and George Haslam of SLAM Productions for their continued support. Similarly, thanks to Editor Laurence Donohue-Greene for tying-in a review in The New York City Jazz Record to coincide with my Brooklyn performances.

Thanks to Dom Lash and Kate Hendry, and to Josh Sinton and family, for offering a place for this itinerant musician to crash a night (or three). Kudos to Nasc Ireland for helping me navigate some border… technicalities 😉

And a very special thanks to the Best Sound Engineer in the Known Universe, Alex Fiennes, for taking time to make the music sound great in London.

Finally, as always, thanks, thanks, thanks, everyone, for listening.

Next up…

Performing again with Dom Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh, this time in Cork, January 2016. See the performance diary for up-to-date info.

Culture Ireland logo

Birmingham, Bristol and London performances presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.

updates

12–20-15: add Tom Durham’s name (thanks, Andy).

reminder: Nick Didkovsky, Han-earl Park and Josh Sinton at 65Fen Music, Brooklyn

Tomorrow (Monday, December 14, 2015), at 9:00pm (doors: 8:30pm): Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Josh Sinton (saxophone) perform at 65Fen Music Series (65 Fenimore Street, Brooklyn, NY 11225). $10 suggested donation.

As I said previously, we never got to do a launch gig for Anomic Aphasia, so, despite Catherine Sikora’s absence (next time, Catherine!), I’m thinking of this as an unofficial record launch event. Come down to hear some noise!

reminder: Ingrid Laubrock and Han-earl Park at New Revolution Arts, Brooklyn

This Saturday (December 12, 2015), at 8:00pm (our set: 9:00pm): Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone) and Han-earl Park (guitar) perform at New Revolution Arts Series (7 Stanhope Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY 11221). $10 suggested donation.

It’s been a while since I played in Brooklyn; it’ll be great to be back. See you there!

tonight: Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders plus Caroline Pugh at Café OTO, London

An evolutionary biologist finding themselves speaking in tongues (Awash In Blue)
Image © 2015 Han-earl Park.

Tonight (Thursday, December 3, 2015), at 8:00pm: final performance of the tour by Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass), Mark Sanders (drums) and Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics)! Also performing are John Russell, Terry Day and Billy Steiger. The event takes place at Cafe OTO (18–22 Ashwin Street, Dalston, London E8 3DL). Tickets: £10 (£8 advance) [get tickets…].

Culture Ireland logo

Presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.

tonight: Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders plus Caroline Pugh at Bang the Bore, Bristol

Someone dropping sheets of metal during a Jazz Session
Image © 2015 Han-earl Park.

Tonight (Wednesday, December 2, 2015), at 8:00pm: Bang the Bore presents Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass), Mark Sanders (drums) and Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics). Also performing are Casey Hale, and Dsic. The event takes place at Cafe Kino (108 Stokes Croft, Bristol BS1 3RU). Admission is £6.

Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh will also be performing in London, tomorrow (December 3). See the performance diary for up-to-date info.

Culture Ireland logo

Presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.

reminder: Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders plus Caroline Pugh at Fizzle, Birmingham

An SUV-sized violin tailgating
Image © 2015 Han-earl Park.

Tomorrow (Tuesday, December 1, 2015), at 7:30pm: Fizzle presents Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass), Mark Sanders (drums) and Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics). Also performing are Lee Griffiths (saxophone) and Olly Chalk (piano). The event takes place at The Lamp Tavern (Barford Street, Birmingham B5 6AH). Admission is £5.

Han-earl Park, Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh will also be performing in Bristol (December 2) and London (December 3). See the performance diary for up-to-date info.

Culture Ireland logo

Presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.

frightening atmospherics (New York City Jazz Record review: Anomic Aphasia)

CD cover of ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) with Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton (artwork copyright 2015, Han-earl Park)
‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) © 2015 Han-earl Park

“Plucky heroine faced with rebellious robots”? “ingot-like density”? “human triumph”? “electronically plugged in as well as pointedly blended”? Ken Waxman, writing in The New York City Jazz Record, reviews ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) by Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton:

Guitarist Han-earl Park joins those improvisers who conceive of a playbook for interactive tactics….

As the guitarists clip staccato whines with ingot-like density from below the bridges and along the necks, her [Sikora’s] wistful soprano saxophone variations preserve the linear form, eventually making common cause with offbeat folksy strums from one string player. Hear Sikora’s final unaccompanied cadenza as potential human triumph over, or coexistence with, the widening machine-produced tremolo pumps. A folk-like overlay also makes its appearance on the concluding “Stopcock”, although the tenor saxophonist’s concentrated upwards snarls and magnetic near-string-tearing pops from guitar strings make the track so atmospheric as to become almost frightening.

The wailing vigor of Sinton’s bottom-pitched horns adds to the reeds’ aleatoric strategies on the other three
tracks. Nearly verbalized reed tones are so euphonious on “Flying Rods” that the subsequent layered lines nearly move into songbook territory. But Park’s parallel flanges and hard thumping keeps the results electronically plugged in as well as pointedly blended.

Sardonically printing a faux questionnaire about Metis 9 application in the CD booklet shows that Park champions music over theory. With associates like Sikora, Didkovsky and Sinton, it appears he can have it both ways. [Read the rest…]

— Ken Waxman (The New York City Jazz Record)

In a few weeks, I’ll be performing in New York with Josh and Nick on December 14, and with Ingrid Laubrock on December 12. See the performance diary for up-to-date info.

[About this recording…] [All reviews…]

Also from SLAM Productions…

‘io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAMCD 531) CD cover (copyright 2011, Han-earl Park)

io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAMCD 531) [details…]

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.

‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover (copyright 2010, Han-earl Park)

Mathilde 253 (SLAMCD 528) [details…]

Performers: Charles Hayward (drums, percussion and melodica), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Ian Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn) plus Lol Coxhill (saxophone). [About this ensemble…]

© 2010 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2010 SLAM Productions.

performance diary 11-24-15 (Birmingham, Bristol, Brooklyn, Cork, London)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
December 1, 2015 The Lamp Tavern
Barford Street
Birmingham B5 6AH
England
7:30pm Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass) and Mark Sanders (drums) [about this trio…] with Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics) presented by Fizzle. Also performing: Lee Griffiths (saxophone) and Olly Chalk (piano). Admission: £5.
[Details…] [Fizzle listings…]
December 2, 2015 Cafe Kino
108 Stokes Croft
Bristol BS1 3RU
England
8:00pm Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass) and Mark Sanders (drums) [about this trio…] with Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics) presented by Bang the Bore. Also performing: Casey Hale, and Dsic. Admission: £6.
[Details…] [Bang the Bore page…]
December 3, 2015 Cafe OTO
18–22 Ashwin Street
Dalston
London E8 3DL
England
8:00pm Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass) and Mark Sanders (drums) [about this trio…] with Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics). Also performing: John Russell, Terry Day and Billy Steiger. Tickets: £10 (£8 advance) [get tickets…].
[Details…] [OTO page…]
December 12, 2015 New Revolution Arts Series
7 Stanhope Street
Bushwick
Brooklyn, NY 11221
8:00pm Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone) and Han-earl Park (guitar). Also performing: Joanna Mattrey (viola), Leila Bordreuil (cello) and Sean Ali (bass); and James Ilgenfritz’ Trio Caveat.$10 suggested donation.
[Details…] [New Revolution Arts listings…]
December 14, 2015 65Fen Music Series
65 Fenimore Street
Brooklyn, NY 11225
9:00pm Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Josh Sinton (saxophone). Also performing: Jon Irabagon (saxophone).$10 suggested donation.
[Details…]
January 29, 2016 Aula Maxima
University College Cork
Cork, Ireland
1:10pm Han-earl Park (guitar), Dominic Lash (double bass) and Mark Sanders (drums) [about this trio…] with Caroline Pugh (voice and electronics) presented by FUAIM Music at UCC.
Admission free.
[Details…] [FUAIM page…]
2016– Europe I am based in Europe as of 2014, and I am seeking performance opportunities for, in particular, my Europe-based projects including Numbers (with Richard Barrett), Mathilde 253 (with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith), and my trio with Dominic Lash and Mark Sanders. Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
Culture Ireland logo

Birmingham, Bristol and London performances presented with funding from Culture Ireland, and support from SLAM Productions.

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