CD available: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park

CD cover of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park (copyright 2012, Creative Sources Recordings)
‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) © 2012 Creative Sources Recordings

Released as part of Creative Sources Recordings’ February 2012 CD catalog: ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd), a duo recording by composer, performer and electronic musician Richard Barrett and guitarist, improviser and constructor Han-earl Park.

[Creative Sources catalog page…]
[Numbers project page…]
[Discography entry…]

description

Lively, relevant, dizzying electroacoustic music; music that seems to be daring us to try and catch it. [More…]

— François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

The fractured phrases that erupt throughout this disc often sound like just one musician playing…. Completely unique, exciting and engaging. [More…]

— Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)

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.)

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)

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… it’s music of the moment, a process of constantly tweaked evolutionary recombination. [More…]

— Tim Owen (Dalston Sound)

[More reviews…]

Numbers is a high-energy, quick-footed, scatter-brained two hander—a looping, convoluted, interactive dance made audible—a musical fender bender involving electroacoustic complexities and (physio)logical splutter-cuts, jump-cuts and match-cuts—an intense white-knuckle extemporization unit—the duo of composer, performer and electronic musician Richard Barrett and guitarist, improviser and constructor Han-earl Park.

Celebrated for his dense, complex, intricate music, Richard Barrett is perhaps best known for his work with Paul Obermayer as part of FURT, as part of the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, and his close collaborations with the Elision Ensemble. At home in both composition and improvisation, Barrett’s music increasingly problematizes the distinction between them. Described by Brian Morton as “a musical philosopher… a delightful shape-shifter”, Han-earl Park is drawn to real-time cyborg configurations in which artifacts and bodies collide. He has performed with some of the finest practitioners of improvised music, and is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith. First performing together as duo in at AUXXX, Berlin, October 2010, Barrett and Park engage in a continuing improvisative conversation; alternately claiming autonomy and independence, and group action and solidarity.

Track titles derive from the final section of numbers, an extended poem by Simon Howard, published in 2010 digitally by Mark Cobley and in book form by The Knives Forks And Spoons Press.

audio excerpts




Audio excerpts courtesy of Creative Sources Recordings.
Music by Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park.
Audio ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings. Please do not distribute the audio files.

personnel

Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar).

track listing

tolur (15:38), tricav (10:42), ankpla (10:46), uettet (5:17), creens (6:03), ll……. (11:42). Total duration: 60:00.

recording details

All music by Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park.

Recorded March 10, 2011 at the Institute of Sonology, The Hague.
Recorded by Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park. Mixed by Richard Barrett.
Design and artwork by Carlos Santos.
Produced by Ernesto Rodrigues.

© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.

about the performers

Richard Barrett (www.richardbarrettmusic.com) is internationally active as both composer and improvising performer, and has collaborated with many leading performers in both areas, while developing works and ideas which increasingly leave behind the distinctions between them. His long-term collaborations include the electronic duo FURT which he formed with Paul Obermayer in 1986 (and its more recent octet version fORCH), composing for and performing with the Elision contemporary music group since 1990, and regular appearances with the Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble since 2003. Recent projects include “CONSTRUCTION”, a two-hour work for twenty performers and three-dimensional sound system, premiered by Elision in November 2011. He is based in Berlin and currently teaches at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague. His work as composer and performer is documented on over 20 CDs, including five discs devoted to his compositions and seven by FURT.

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (www.busterandfriends.com) works within/from/around traditions of fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, mostly open improvised musics, sometimes engineering theater, sometimes inventing ritual. He feels the gravitational pull of collaborative, multi-authored contexts, and has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries and concert halls in Austria, Denmark, Germany, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA.

He is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, and is involved in ongoing collaborations with Bruce Coates, Franziska Schroeder, Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell. He has recently performed with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Lol Coxhill, Pat Thomas, Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders, Matana Roberts, Richard Barrett, Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Buckner and Kato Hideki. Festival appearances include Sonorities (Belfast), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), and CEAIT Festival (California). His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions and DUNS Limited Edition.

also by Han-earl Park

‘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).

© 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).

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

updates

10-04-13: add audio excerpts and reviews, plus some small formating changes.

io 0.0.1 beta++: (musical) time and machine musicianship 0.1

HZ: ‘simple-pattern’

Second part of a series at the io 0.0.1 beta++ website about musical time, rhythm, musicality and politics:

The issue is not so much that a musicality built up from a simple ‘beat detection’ is not possible…. The issue is the implications of seeking and defining, in research, such a trait; valuing such a musicality; and, by extension, practicing such a music.

As argued by Suzanne Cusick, George E. Lewis, Christopher Small and others, musical practice constitutes a political schema—music performs society. The command-control model embedded in a musicality built upon ‘beat detection’ has profound consequences for constructing alternative politics.

[Read the rest…]

arts council logo

The construction of io 0.0.1 beta++ has been made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland.

performance: Mathilde 253 at Freedom of the City, London

Mathilde 253 (Han-earl Park, Charles Hayward and Ian Smith), Cafe OTO, London, April 18, 2010
Mathilde 253 (Cafe OTO, London, April 18, 2010). Photo © 2010 Seán Kelly

Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 2:00pm: As part of Freedom of the City, Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) performs at Cecil Sharp House (2 Regent’s Park Road, Camden, London NW1 7AY, England) [map…]. Tickets: £12 [festival passes and concession details…]

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

Also performing on May 6, 2012 at 2:00pm: John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra.

Also performing at FOTC: Guillaume Viltard; Ute Kanngiesser, Grundik Kasyansky, and Roger Turner; Jamie Coleman and John Russell; Jennifer Allum, Ross Lambert and Seijiro Murayama; Weavels (Mick Beck, Chris Cundy and Alex Ward); Sebastian Lexer and Steve Noble; Okkyung Lee Christian Marclay and Phil Minton; Tony Marsh and Mark Sanders; John Edwards, Shabaka Hutchings and Mark Sanders; Common Objects (John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Heledd Francis, Lina Lapelyte, Matthew Lovett and Lee Patterson); Pat Thomas; and Evan Parker and Eddie Prévost.

about Mathilde 253

Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith) was born out of an opportunity to explore the spontaneous mashup of avant-rock, African-American creative musics, European free improvisation and noise. Featuring special guest Lol Coxhill, the ensemble debuted at Cafe OTO (London) in April 2010. In March 2011, with support from Music Network, UCC School of Music, Note Productions, the National Concert Hall and the Cork Opera House, Mathilde 253 toured Ireland with the celebrated composer-improviser Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith.

The ensemble weaves 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.

Mathilde 253’s eponymous debut CD (SLAMCD 528) was released by SLAM Productions in January 2011.

“Smith favors long mongrelly growls and scales that ascend and descend in illogical ways, like the stairs in an M C Escher print. Hayward has a very distinct sense of time underneath the freedom…. This is an exciting new venture…. One can reasonably expect unexpected things from Park, who is a delightful shape-shifter and Smith always repays the closest attention, and claims it with sudden open-horn breakouts if the fabric of the music gets too smooth and uninflected. Great stuff….”

— Brian Morton (Point of Departure)

“Ordered and entwining… a tapestry of choice: that of another Mathilde, of a complete beauty.”

— Guillaume Belhomme (Le son du grisli)

Charles Hayward is known as the pioneering drummer with This Heat and Camberwell Now, an ever growing list of solo concerts and CDs (most recent release Abracadabra Information on Locus Solus label), special collaborative performances, and is in Massacre with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith.

Throughout the 90’s up to the present he has initiated a bewildering array of events and performances, including the widely acclaimed series Accidents + Emergencies at the Albany Theatre, Out of Body Orchestra (too much sound, not enough space, not enough time), music made from the sound of the new Laban dance centre being built which was choreographed for the official opening, music for a circus (part of the National Theatre’s ‘Art of Regeneration’ initiative), the full-on installation/performance Anti-Clockwise (with Ashleigh Marsh and David Aylward) for multiple strobes, maze structure of diverse textures, 2 drummers, synthesizers and your nervous system. Recent developements include the Continuity evenings as part of Camberwell Arts.

Committed to song ‘but the shapes have to change,’ his current one-man show is an intoxicating mix of percussive attack, swirling electronics and lyrical fragment collage.

“An unwavering belief in the power of the groove and an uncanny facility for generating one riff after another.”

— The Wire

“Telepathic magic…. Hayward is one of the most life-affirming people who stalks this dark globe.

— The Sound Projector

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) has been working within/from/around traditions of fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, mostly open improvised musics for over fifteen years, sometimes engineering theater, sometimes inventing ritual. He feels the gravitational pull of collaborative, multi-authored contexts, and has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries, concert halls, and (ad-hoc) alternative spaces in Austria, Denmark, Germany, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA.

He is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, and is involved in collaborations with Bruce Coates, Franziska Schroeder, Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell. He has recently performed with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Lol Coxhill, Pat Thomas, Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders, Matana Roberts, Richard Barrett, Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Buckner and Kato Hideki. Festival appearances include Sonorities (Belfast), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), VAIN Live Art (Oxford), and the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California). His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions and DUNS Limited Edition.

Park founded Stet Lab, a monthly improvised music space in Cork, Ireland, and taught improvisation at the UCC Department of Music.

“Park applies every technique to his detuned ax—tapping, sliding, muting, twisting the machine heads. It’s simultaneously disciplined and barbaric.”

— Greg Burk (MetalJazz)

“Pieces of dismantled gestures, destabilizing timbres, and impressive synergy.”

— François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

Ian Smith has been playing improvised music and has performed with Evan Parker, John Stevens, Maggie Nicols, Lol Coxhill, Steve Beresford and Eddie Prévost among others. His own trio, Trian, has played at the 1993 London Experimental Music Festival and the 1992 Soho Jazz Festival. He also participated in a reformation of Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra in the ICA in 1994. He has collaborated with composer Roger Doyle, winner of the Bourges International Elecro-Acoustic Music Competition 1997, and he has been featured on two instrumental tracks by the hip hop band Marxman. He toured the UK with Butch Morris’ London Skyscraper conduction project in November 1997.

He helped to institute the London Improvisers orchestra in 1998 with Steve Beresford and Evan Parker, which continues to play monthly in London and has recently performed at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. He also founded The Gathering with Maggie Nichols.

In 2000 he recorded his second CD as a leader, Daybreak, with Derek Bailey, Veryan Weston, Gail Brand and Oren Marshall. Into the twenty-first century, as well as regularly playing with London improvisers, he has also performed with Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar Arkestra, guitarists Han-earl Park, Reeves Gabrels, the Poet and Detriot legend John Sinclair, and New York based drummer Harris Eisenstadt.

“Smith’s style has the free-form panache of a Wadada Leo Smith or Joe McPhee, but his experience of other musics is never too far from the surface. Some of his gestures seem to derive from earlier forms of jazz, and there are moments of harmonic directness that you could put chord symbols under. But it has all been thoughtfully moulded into a highly convincing and distinctive language.”

— Philip Clark (JazzReview)

“Smith’s trumpet playing is a particular revelation. His brassy blats and smears play off of the hyperactive spatters of Eisenstadt’s drums. There is a clear jazz edge to his tone, which sounds almost radical these days when many trumpet players in the improv world seem inclined to turn their back on that vocabulary. But he can also dip down to breathy flutters and muted coloristic playing.”

— Michael Rosenstein (Signal to Noise)

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

Mathilde 253 (SLAMCD 528) is available from SLAM Productions [details…]

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

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

updates

04–30–12: add the John Edwards/Shabaka Hutchings/Mark Sanders set that stands-in for the Tony Marsh/Mark Sanders duo. I cannot, however, bring myself to remove Mr. Marsh’s name. RIP Tony Marsh.
Add facebook event page.

io 0.0.1 beta++: (musical) time and machine musicianship

HZ: ‘wind-chimes’

First post as part of a series at the io 0.0.1 beta++ website about musical time, bodies, computation, machine musicianship, and the regulation of the musical:

Perhaps the assumption of a foundational importance to musicality of a simple ‘beat detection’ stems from subscribing to a command-control model of musicality. In this model the mind is the central hub of the musical. In this model, rhythm is constant, inherited, external and which must be followed. This model, in turn, arises from certain, widely held to be sure, cultural assumptions about desirable and ‘natural’ social and political interactions. What do these assumptions blind us from?

[Read the rest…]

arts council logo

The construction of io 0.0.1 beta++ has been made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland.

…and more CD reviews: io 0.0.1 beta++

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

Two more reviews of ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) with two contrasting takes on the meeting between human and machine musicians. Ken Waxman, on the one hand, juxtaposes the “unobtrusive and egoless” machine with the human improvisers who display, for example, “thoughtful pauses”:

Han-earl Park personifying Dr. Frankenstein, has created a non-human artificial musician from ad-hoc components including speakers, kitchenware and missile switches. This CD is a literal record of how the non-human, prosaically named io 0. 0. 1 beta++, sounds in concert with flesh-and-blood counterparts….

io 0. 0. 1 beta++ is unobtrusive and egoless enough… to warble its staccato particle contributions without trying to engulf or show up the humans. Its contributions are unique enough on their own.

For instance on the initial ‘Pioneer: Variance’ and ‘Pioneer: Dance’ contrasting alto and soprano saxophone trills and squeaks are put into bolder relief as the otherworldly flutters, oscillated tones and flanged rotations of the machine are kept in a straight line by Park’s legato picking. The thoughtful pauses audible in the guitar playing confirms Park’s human-ness, especially when compared to the grainy whistles and juddering vibrations that arise from io 0. 0. 1 beta++….

Nonetheless the machine further demonstrates its versatility on the 59-second ‘4G’, with metallic muted trombone-like snores and even raises the question as to whether io 0. 0. 1 beta++ or extended saxophone techniques are creating the air pops and abrasive tongue flutters on subsequent tracks. In the main crackling reductionist resonations are attributed to its properties, while any legato or lyrical intermezzos are, more likely than not, propelled from the instruments and imaginations of full-fledged Homo sapiens.

Succinctly as the three demonstrate on ‘Return Trajectory’, during which io 0. 0. 1 beta++ appears to have taken five, an additional voice—human or otherwise—is necessary to create a pleasing sound picture. The guitarist’s connective down strokes plus the swelling layers of contrapuntal reed timbres are distinctive and solipsistic enough on their own. [Read the rest…]

— Ken Waxman (JazzWord)

Romualdo Del Noce at Jazz Convention, on the other hand, hears a “charmingly imperfect interplay” between human and machine musicians becomes a drama of the ‘human,’ the ‘other,’ and of cyborgs. An interplay in which Han-earl Park improvises a “rugged plateau” and “hyperacid notes”, and Franziska Schroeder enriches “the other half of the sax… with a naked and experimental voice, together in harmony and dissonance with parallel and converging streams of the thoroughbred free-player Bruce Coates”.

Le corde tese di Park imbastiscono un plateau scabro ma di lungo e persistente respiro, vivente nelle articolazioni e nella tessitura della sua fisica elettroacustica; mentre sul versante “meccanico” dell’instrumentarium i modi performanti di Franziska Schroeder arricchiscono l’altra metà del sax (a fianco delle Matana Roberts, Alexandra Grimal, Ingrid Laubrock etc.) di una voce sperimentante e nuda, in sintonia e insieme dissonanza con i flussi paralleli e convergenti del free-player purosangue Bruce Coates, e il tutto si dipana entro uno svolgimento a canovaccio libero e istantaneo, lungo il suo deviante svolgimento interrogandosi (senza eccessivo paradosso) se l’autentica “alienità” sia rispettivamente appannaggio della cosa o, piuttosto e viceversa, dell’ “umano”….

Insomma, l’avanguardia è tornata: non che fosse mai stata davvero latitante, ma gli interrogativi sonori, lacerati e critici, del trio pongono come oggetto radicale la disumanizzazione progressiva e le implicazioni del sempre più preponderante avvento della macchina, forse retrodatando le intenzioni alle prime decadi del secolo scorso e alle relative allarmistiche dottrine, ma riprendendole lungo le forme acutamente nervose e l’attenzione creativa dei medianici e cyborghiani performers e del loro interplay attrattivamente imperfetto. [Read the rest…] [English translation…]

— Romualdo Del Noce (Jazz Convention)

‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) with Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder is available from SLAM Productions. [More info…] [All reviews…] [Get the CD…]

arts council logo

The construction of io 0.0.1 beta++ has been made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland.

update: seeking performances (Europe, 2012)

Some dates confirmed, some TBC, but some dates still open: I am seeking performances in Europe, between April 26 to May 11, 2012. In addition to solo or (ad-hoc) ensemble contexts, pending logistics and dates, the following ensembles may be available:

Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!

Contact me for further information, audio recordings, etc. (some material only available to promoters).

performance diary 02-09-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
April 1, 2012 Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe Street
New York, NY 10002-7351
6:00pm 6:00pm: ‘April Fool’s Day Mystery Set.’
7:00pm: Han-earl Park (guitar).
Free admission.
[Details…]
[DMG page…]
May 3, 2012 Performance Space 2
University of Hull: Scarborough Campus
Filey Road
Scarborough, England
7:30pm (TBC) Performance by Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar).
Tickets: £4 (£3).
May 6, 2012 Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent’s Park Road
Camden
London, England
2:00pm Performance by Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) as part of Freedom of the City.Also performing: John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra.[Details…]
[FOTC page with ticket info…]
May 7, 2012 The Oxford
256 Kentish Town Road
London, England
9:00pm
(doors: 8:30pm)
Performance by Mark Hanslip (saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Phillip Marks (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by Jazz @ The Oxford.
Admission: £5.
July 24, 2012 The Backroom @ Freddy’s Bar
627 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
8:30pm Performance presented by On The Way Out.
Details to follow…
April–May 2012 Europe More dates TBC, but some dates still open: Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn), plus Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) are seeking performance opportunities in Europe, April to May 2012.
In addition, Han-earl Park (guitar) is available for formal or ad-hoc performances.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
late 2012 North America Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) is seeking performance opportunities in North America, November/December 2012.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!

Continue reading “performance diary 02-09-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)”

site update: discography

CD cover of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park (copyright 2012, Creative Sources Recordings)artillery (VMDL11) (copyright 2011, Han-earl Park / Vicmod Records)io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAMCD 531) CD cover (copyright 2011, Han-earl Park)
‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover‘Boolean Transforms’ CD cover

In anticipation of the upcoming release of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett, I’ve updated my discography page. In addition to the usual changes, I’ve now divided the page between physical and download releases, and anthologies.

All artwork and cover graphics copyright their respective owners. ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) CD cover © 2012 Creative Sources Recordings. ‘Live at the Glucksman gallery, Cork’ CD cover © 2009 Jamie Smith/Owlhouse Recordings.

upcoming CD: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park

CD cover of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park (copyright 2011, Creative Sources Recordings)
CD cover preview (© 2011 Creative Sources Recordings)

To be released by Creative Sources Recordings in February 2012: ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park [about this duo…].

[Creative Sources catalog page…]

More info to follow…

Download of the Day at All About Jazz: Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders

Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (original photos: HeP by Stephanie Hough; and MS by Andrew Putler)
Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (original photos: HeP by Stephanie Hough; and MS by Andrew Putler)

Free jazz, in no uncertain terms. I don’t know what it is about Han-Earl’s groups’ sounds. Ten seconds in, I think to myself, “Man, this isn’t my thing.” But by the time the tune is over, I realize that I’m totally into it and enjoying it. If a musician can convert my ears within the span of one tune, in my eyes, that’s a sign of talent.

All About Jazz

All About Jazz features ‘shoapnxoe gutair dmurs a.ii’ by Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders as today’s Download of the Day! I’m again happy and honored to have a recording on AAJ’s download selection (previously featured: ‘Carrier’ with Richard Scott and ‘Chorale’ with Franziska Schroeder). Thanks to AAJ downloads editor Dave Sumner for selecting the recording, to Chris Trent for the recording and mastering work, and to Mike Hurley of Fizzle for hosting the performance at which the recording was made.

[Track at AAJ…] [High-quality download of the full performance…]

CD update: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park

CD cover of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park (copyright 2011, Creative Sources Recordings)
CD cover preview (© 2011 Creative Sources Recordings)

The release of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd), after a delay, is back on track! The recording with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park [about this duo…] will be released by Creative Sources Recordings. I’ll update y’all with a release date when I know more…

thanks: McMullen-Park (DMG) and Park-Sikora (Brecht Forum), New York

Han-earl Park and Catherine Sikora (Brecht Forum, NYC, 01-08-12) photo copyright 2012 Melanie L. Marshall
Han-earl Park and Catherine Sikora (Brecht Forum, NYC, 01-08-12) photo © 2012 Melanie L. Marshall

A quick note of thanks to all involved in the first two performances of 2012. Thanks to Bruce Lee Gallanter and Manny ‘Lunch’ Maris at the Downtown Music Gallery for the open invite, for hosting the performance, and for their support over the years. Seriously, go to the DMG and get yourself a record (maybe one of mine 😉 Thanks to Ras Moshe for organizing the performance at The Brecht Forum and for welcoming this newcomer to NYC. Thanks also to the other performers of the evening including G. L. Diana and Kyoko Kitamura [Kyoko’s take on the gig…] who brought Cardew to life in a way different from all the Cardews I’ve heard in the past—I’m very interested to hear how this project might continue to evolve—and Ras’ powerful and playful quartet (sorry, don’t have the full lineup details of the quartet—contact me, and I will update).

A big, big, big thanks to the two saxophonists who generously shared the stage with me: Tracy McMullen for her wit and imagination, pushing the music to unexpected places, and to Catherine Sikora for her big, beautiful sound and sense of space and drama.

And, as always, thanks to all who came to listen and watch.