This promises to be music with great depth and vibrance!
about the musicians
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) has been crossing borders and performing fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, always traditional, open improvised musics for twenty years. He is the mastermind behind ensembles including Eris 136199 with Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky; and Sirene 1009 with Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and rit.; and has a duo with Richard Barrett.
Anton Hunter is a composer and improviser living in Manchester. He leads the 11-piece Article XI band as well as his own trio, both with records on Efpi Records. Also ongoing is a duo with baritone saxophonist Cath Roberts called Ripsaw Catfish, Cath’s quintet Sloth Racket, the trio Beck Hunters and a myriad of other different ensembles, ad hoc and otherwise.
Born in Canada, clarinetist Heather Roche trained in England and now lives in London. She gives workshops in clarinet technique and composition all over Europe, and has premiered many solo works for her instrument, including pieces by Maija Hynninen, Simon Emmerson, Lisa Robertson, Christopher Fox, Dai Fujikura, and others.
Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Community.
Reeds pop’n’slap, strings scratch’n’snap, and membranes flutter and resonate.
Dream a little noisy, gently disquieting dream with us. I’m super proud to be part of a trio with Yorgos and Camila, and I am super happy to be bringing our particular clangerociousness to you. (Plus I am alway excited to see what Sara and Marco bring to the table!)
€1,200 pledged of €650 goal. 184% funded. 44 backers.
You did it!
Thanks to you, our awe-inspiring backers, we will master the recording, create the artwork, write the liner notes, press the discs, and get the music to you. You have been fantastic, and I am awestruck by your generosity, and really touched by your support.
I’ll be back in touch over the coming months with news and updates about the rewards and the progress of the production, but, in the meantime, I hope you will join me in celebrating this achievement. Getting strange, noisy, undomesticated improvised music released can sometimes be a difficult task, but you have made it possible.
As for me? I celebrated by doing some late night soldering 😊
Please take care, and, again, thank you so very much. You have been above and beyond.
Back a few months ago, while reflecting on the mix, I wrote:
Listening to a static mix of #eris136199’s August recording. I love the final track: it’s, by turns dreamy and queasy, polytonal music that slides in-out of tune….
But I wonder if this track will make sense outside the context of the tour in which the trio played some of its most harmonious music (hitting _real_ chords, and sounding _real_ harmony). I feel like this track was almost a respite of sorts….
There are moments when #eris136199 stubbornly refuses to play in the same key/tuning. Almost unbearable—maybe even bad taste—listening you wish the trio would surrender to harmonic gravity. And when one player does resolve the disharmony, it’s plays like gleeful mischief. [Source…]
If you’re wondering, yes, this track made the cut. It’ll be the second piece on the album, and, for its stubborn weirdness while refusing the easy trapping of being #seriouslyexperimental or #cuteandquirky, it might be my favorite on the album.
Find us on Kickstarter! Joining this project means that you will be the first to hear this vividly strange and beautiful music. Your support will also mean that we are able to make the best album we can. Plus, as we have surpassed our target thanks to our awe-inspiring fans, you will now also have an opportunity to unlock upgrades, and some very, very special bonus rewards.
I honestly think this album has the best music I’ve put on record, and I am very grateful to be able to share this strangely beautiful music with you. [Kickstarter page…]
Formed in New York in 2012, Eris 136199 is the quick-reacting cyborg virtuosity of Han-earl Park, the mighty melodic imagination and big tenor sound of Catherine Sikora, and the diamond-cut precision and grind-meets-experimentalism of Nick Didkovsky.
Last year, during our second European tour, Eris 136199 went into Hackney Road Studios in London to record our next album, and our first studio album. As engineer Sean Woodlock hit the record button, we knew straight away that something very special was taking place that day: leaping from insectoid ASMR glitches to powerful ballads of weight and light; from the gentlest, languorous shimmers to startling No Wave noise, from raspy double-guitar hockets to gutted, dismantled chorales. And, to both our surprise and delight that thrill of musical discovery has translated beautifully during the mixing process.
The music, recording and the mix are complete, and this is where you, our awesome fans, come in. Eris 136199 now needs to take the final steps to releasing the album: mastering the album, creating the artwork and design, and pressing the CDs. And we are offering special rewards (including exclusive never-before-heard recordings, limited edition merch, and one-of-a-kind items), so please check out the various rewards and see where you might fit in to help us!
To our wonderful fans who blew us away with your support during our successful 2017 Kickstarter, we are so pleased to be sharing this latest project with you. And to both our long-time fans and those new to Eris, we promise that the music on this latest album will be very different from anything else; something beautifully strange and unexpected even for the wonderfully unpredictable Eris 136199.
Please have a look through the available rewards, and, when you’re ready, help bring noise to life!
Formed in New York in 2012, Eris 136199 is the quick-reacting cyborg virtuosity of Han-earl Park, the mighty melodic imagination and big tenor sound of Catherine Sikora, and the diamond-cut precision and grind-meets-experimentalism of Nick Didkovsky.
Formed in New York in 2012, Eris 136199 is the quick-reacting cyborg virtuosity of Han-earl Park (Sirene 1009), the mighty melodic imagination and big tenor sound of Catherine Sikora (Clockwork Mercury), and the diamond-cut precision and grind-meets-experimentalism of Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve).
Catherine, Nick and I had a fantastic time when we performed at The Vortex in August, and I am very happy to be able to support the venue (with its amazing crew) in this way. Plus, for those who’ve been asking me for a solo recording, here’s a super rare chance to pick up a new one.
Album available to stream via the free Bandcamp app, and download in multiple formats including lossless.
First, my thanks as always to those who came to listen and witness musicking in real-time collisions. It was great to see so many old friends and new faces; to hear from so many of how you made your way into this music. My heartfelt thanks to you for embarking on the journey with us!
I am so very grateful to all our hosts: a big, big, big thanks to Jazz em Agosto for making all this possible. My deepest gratitude to Rui Neves for first inviting this unruly trio to perform at the festival, and to his unerring belief in the necessity of difficult music. Thanks also to the super-professional sound and stage team; to Petra Cvelbar for the awesome photography; to João Brilhante for all the media work; and to the unshakable patience and enthusiasm of Inês Nunes who got this trio from A-to-B and back again (I expect big things in all your future endeavors).
Warmest thanks everyone at The Vortex for their generosity and enthusiasm—what a true community! In particular, thanks to the amazing Kathianne Hingwan for her kindness and generosity, to Kim Macari for the invitation to perform, and to our fantastic sound engineer Ali Ward for the faster-than-light energy. (And of course Nutmeg for greeting the band!)
Thanks to everyone behind the scenes at the Dublin event: to Note Productions (to Matthew Nolan for putting together the program), and to Improvise Music Company (to Aoife Concannon, Adam Nolan, Kenneth Killeen, and, in particular for the Question & Answer, to Caitríona O’Mahony). Thanks also to Zeropunkt (Fergus Cullen, Jamie Davis and Damien Lennon) for graciously sharing the stage with us.
Kudos, Sean Woodlock, mastermind behind Hackney Road Studios for the smoothest, quickest, most professional of setups, and for creating the most musically, technically, logistically and acoustically satisfying studio recording experience I’ve ever had. Truly, if anyone needs a recording, hit Sean up. (And thanks to Colin Webster for recommending the studio.)
Thanks to Laurent Carrier and everyone Colore for handling all the paperwork, and to the tireless Lee Paterson who helped negotiate the details, and guided this musician carefully through the whole paperwork process. You were just above-and-beyond, Lee! (And thanks to Ingrid Laubrock for introducing me to Lee, and to Alex Hawkins and Charles Hayward for BTS consultations.)
Kudos to Paul Acquaro and everyone at Free Jazz, to Mike Borella at Avant Music News, to Dave Foxall at a Jazz Noise, and Tim Owen of _____on Sound for their continued support, and help getting the word out about our music and these performances.
Last, but certainly not least, thanks go to my travel companions, both in musical and geographical space (and in hypothetical lived simulations and dream states). A big thanks to Catherine for the big note, the moments of harmonic serendipity, and the unexpectedly expected interjections; and to Nick for the super-critical noise, the human-controlled virtual reverb chamber, and for the dreamy soundscapes (or is that the sound dreamscapes). Thank you both for observing and noting the synchronicity in our travels (of foxes, of tango, of almost forgotten ancestors, of frozen assets). As we discussed on multiple occasions on the tour, the ensemble is the composition, and it was a pleasure to study this composition more fully with each performance: experiencing the music of changes from energetic play of weight and light (Vortex, London), high-risk explorations of the outer reaches of idiom (Hackney Road, London), games of serendipity and of disjunction (Lisbon), and music of counterpoint and real harmony (Dublin).
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.
