I feel honored to have been part of an orchestra of performers of that caliber. As best I can make out, the final lineup of the Silver Orchestra on the night was:
Thomas Buckner (voice), Jennifer Choi, Wendy Law (strings), Casey Anderson, Casey Butler, Jamie Baum, Marty Ehrlich, Sara Schoenbeck, J. D. Parran, Jason Mears (winds), Ted Daniel, Taylor Ho Bynum, Mark Taylor (brass), Yuko Fujiyama (piano), John Lindberg (bass), Han-earl Park (guitar), and Bobby Naughton, Susie Ibarra, Martin Obeng, Harris Eisenstadt (percussion).
Was great to catch up with some old acquaintances, and meet many new people. Some things to take away: the trio of drummers to my right (Susie, Martin and Harris) always sounded fantastic; Mark’s fluttering, playful solo was a highlight; Angelica Sanchez for her sense of humor; musing with Jason about the possibilities (and practicalities) of large ensemble creative music; and Yuko and Taylor making the sections breaks clearer for the rest of us.
And of course, thanks to Wadada for taking time to guide us through his compositions; always a pleasure. Happy Birthday, Wadada!
More reviews of ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) including Vittorio’s big thumbs-up at MusicZoom where he hails the recordings as a “total hymn to modernity”, in which the human musicians “throw themselves with passion on the ideas from the inanimate object”, and the listener will be “fully repaid by that which is a successful experiment”:
Il titolo da romanzo o di sigla di messaggio segreto è il nome della macchina sparamusica/rumori che fa bella mostra di sè sul palco e che senza alcun intervento dei musicisti intorno tira giù il suo catalogo di suoni con cui gli altri si trovano a confrontarsi. Un´idea che sarebbe piaciuta ai futuristi di omai un secolo fa, un inno totale alla modernità. Altro che strumenti acustici!
I tre musicisti coinvolti insieme alla macchina sono Han-earl Park alla chitarra, Bruce Coates al sax alto e sopranino e Franziska Schroeder al sax soprano. Non hanno nessuna paura per il confronto e così si avventano con passione sulla proposta dell´oggetto inanimato.
La session completamente improvvisata richiede molta attenzione da parte dell´ascoltatore, ripagata completamente da quello che è un esperimento riuscito. [Read the rest…] [English translation…]
Meanwhile, what to me is ‘playful’ may be ‘uncompromising’ to someone else:
Fra segmenti più atmosferico-minimali, e altri invece più frammentati e nervosi, si procede così, talora arrestandosi a una sorta di limbo emozionale, di quieta truculenza, peraltro sempre ammirevole per coerenza e rigore. [Read the rest…]
On the other hand, Ed Pinsent of The Sound Projector highlights the (fun, playful) material and interactive dimensions in the meeting between human and machine musicians:
The guitarist Park, sometime member of Mathilde 253 whose fine CD impressed us in March this year, is joined by two improvising saxophonists, Bruce Coates (from the Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra) and Franziska Schroeder (member of the trio FAINT), and the record documents the meeting of this trio with the “machine musician” io 0.0.1 beta++. This device is an automaton, a musical robot if you will, built by Mr Park; it’s not just another computer programme that plays random sounds or builds an “interactive” space for other laptop musicians, but actually occupies physical space and performs on the stage alongside its human counterparts. Shades of Pierre Bastien…. The multi-media artist Sara Roberts from California writes the liner notes and she does a much better job than I possibly could in articulating the cultural resonances of this man-meets-automaton event. [Read the rest…]
And Rui Eduardo Paes hears a meeting in which the human musicians bring their varied experience, in avant-jazz and in the space between electroacoustics and contemporary music, and in which the automaton “interactively reacting to what they do and even giving them cues”:
Os músicos de carbono envolvidos ora trabalham na área do ‘avant-jazz’, ora na da electroacústica de fronteira com a música contemporânea: Park com Charles Hayward, Wadada Leo Smith e Paul Dunmall, Coates com Tony Oxley, Lol Coxhill e o compositor indeterminista Christian Wolff, e Schroeder ao lado do pianista português Pedro Rebelo e em colaborações com Pauline Oliveros e Evan Parker. Todas essas experiências se reflectem em temas como ‘Ground-Based Telemetry’ e ‘Laplace: Instability’, sempre com o io a reagir interactivamente ao que fazem e até a dar-lhes deixas. [Read the rest…] [English translation…]
As of December 2011, Han-earl Park is based in New York, and is seeking formal or ad-hoc playing opportunities. Interested musicians, promoters, venues, please get in touch!
Very proud to present these recordings; I feel privileged to have performed alongside these powerful musicians. Many thanks to Chris Trent for the recording, and Mike Hurley of Fizzle for hosting the performance.
Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (original photos: HeP by Stephanie Hough; and MS by Andrew Putler)
December 16th features Leo Smith’s Golden Quintet [with Angelica Sanchez, John Lindberg, and Pheeroan akLaff] (adding Susie Ibarra on drums), his electric band Organic, and the Silver Orchestra, featuring Jennifer Choi, Jessica Pavone, Wendy Law (strings), Jamie Baum, Marty Ehrlich, Sara Schoenbeck, Mark Taylor, J.D. Parran, Jason Mears (winds), Ted Daniel, Taylor Ho Bynum (brass) Yuko Fujiyama (piano), John Lindberg (bass), Liberty Ellman, Han-Earl Park (guitar), and Bobby Naughton, Susie Ibarra, Martin Obeng, Harris Eisenstadt, (percussion), performing Central Park (featuring Thomas Buckner, voice) and the premiere of his latest work, Occupy the World: For Freedom. [Read the rest…]
As part of the two-day celebration to mark Smith’s 70th birthday, the event takes place at the Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217). Tickets: $15 ($10) [get tickets…].
The release of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) has been delayed. Initially scheduled for a November 2011 release, the CD with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park [about this duo…] will be released by Creative Sources Recordings at a later date. Updated release schedule will follow when I know more…
Quick thanks to Gino Robair for the invite and putting the whole thing together; Tom Duff hosting the show (and providing somewhere for this itinerant musician to crash for the night), John Shiurba for providing the amp, the beer and being a very crafty and generous guitarist; Tim Perkis for the musicality and musings; and Matt Ingalls for injecting high and low frequency noises at exactly the right time. Thanks also to Murray Campbell, Amber Cone, Izzy Goldschneider and Randy McKean for providing one of the oddest quasi-gigs I’ve performed at.
Apologies for the brevity of the acknowledgement, but things are a little crazy right now with the upcoming move to New York… See you on the East Coast!
