Month: February 2011

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Jazzwise: Mathilde 253

‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover
‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover

Daniel Spicer gives Mathilde 253 (SLAMCD 528) a thumbs up in the current issue of Jazzwise (issue 150, March 2011):

This new improvising group… draws disparate personalities into one eccentric orbit. Han-Earl Park, a guitarist of Korean descent, residing in Ireland, is as at home in underground Noise as he is dueting with free jazz heroes like Paul Dunmall. Trumpeter Ian Smith is a stalwart of the London improv scene and drummer Charles Hayward is best known for his work with seminal post-Punk experimenters This Heat. On these live recordings they generate a surprising amount of heat. Park uses pedals to smudge and smear chords or rolls out strange robotic grumblings, a technician playing electricity as much as the guitar. Smith has a high, taut attach, like a more tuneful version of Donald Ayler’s pure energy. And Hayward… makes a good fist of playing freely…. Veteran saxophonist Coxhill rounds it out to a quartet for two tunes, making this a very satisfying debut.

— Daniel Spicer (Jazzwise)

Mathilde 253’s eponymous debut CD (SLAMCD 528) available on SLAM Productions. [More info…] [All reviews…] [Get the CD…]

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tickets available: Mathilde 253 with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (Cork and Dublin, 2011)

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith

Tickets are now available for the performances in Cork and Dublin, Ireland, by Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet) with Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn). [Details…]

See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [Details about events/tour…]

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith will also speak on ‘Ankhrasmation: A Systemic Music Language for Creative Music’ as part of the UCC Music Research Seminar Series. The talk is free, open to the public, and takes place at the UCC Music Building (Sundays Well, Cork) at 2:00 pm on 30 March.

  • Arts Council Ireland logo
  • Music Network logo

Presented with funding from the Music Network Performance and Touring Award, and support from UCC School of Music, Note Productions, the National Concert Hall and the Cork Opera House.

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thanks: Birmingham, Edinburgh and London*2

St Cecilia’s Hall (Edinburgh) 02-18-11

Thanks to all those hosting and organizing the performances: Mike Hurley and the rest of the Fizzle gang, Sibyl Madrigal of Boat-ting, Matthew Collings (who also sourced the tools for a mid-tour kluge repair of my amplifier), and the Lewisham Arthouse. Kudos to Reka Sanders, Joe Hope and Han-ter Park for putting a roof over this itinerant musician.

Big thanks to Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders for the high-energy, musical workout, to Owen Green for introducing me to the musical (and comical) applications of a cardboard box, to Pat Thomas for his skill and wit, to Lol Coxhill for being the inimitable Lol Coxhill, and to the rest of Mathilde 253—to Charles Hayward and Ian Smith—for pushing and pulling into ever more fascinating musical spaces.

Last but not least, thanks to all who came to listen/watch.

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more CD reviews: Mathilde 253

‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover
‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover

After some glowing reviews (including one from Brian Morton in Signal to Noise [read it…] and another from Guillaume Belhomme in Le son du grisli [read it…]), Mathilde 253 has got a couple of more careful, measured responses:

…A bustling, talkative seventy-four minutes made up of angular, Baileyesque electric guitar, some fantastic drum splashes mixed with occasional bursts of less traditional percussive sounds such as the small metallic chimes heard in the opening seconds of the album, and the chattery, conversational style of the trumpet and horn. …The playing here is very fine, a tightly woven mass of sounds with no one real dominating voice but each musician expressive and energetic. The music is all about the conversation, but a real heart-on-the-sleeve collision course of a conversation, but nevertheless the result of the musicians listening to one another and responding. The addition of Coxhill’s softer soprano on the last two pieces do slow the music a little, but the jazz credentials remain. If the music’s progression is a little less choppy then melody and hints at standardised rhythm creep in, but the improvised discussion carries on, perhaps the words are less heated but the debate remains of interest. [Read the rest…]

— Richard Pinnell (The Watchful Ear)

My favorite tracks are the last two, in which the group is joined by saxophone legend Lol Coxhill. The four minute guitar/sax duet at the beginning of Track 6 is inspired; the two really seem to be conversing with one another. [Read the rest…]

— Max Level (KFJC 89.7 FM)

Mathilde 253’s eponymous debut CD (SLAMCD 528) available on SLAM Productions. [More info…] [All reviews…] [Get the CD…]

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reminder: Mathilde 253 with Lol Coxhill at Boat-ting

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

Tomorrow night (Saturday, February 21, 2011), at 8:00pm: Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward (drums, percussion and melodica), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Ian Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn)) perform with Lol Coxhill (saxophone) plus Sharon Gal (voice), Alex Ward (guitar) and Steve Noble (drums); Red Start (Noel Taylor (clarinet), Benedict Taylor (viola) and Noura Sanatian (violin)); and Sibylline Sisters (Sibyl Madrigal (poetry), Aromorel Weston (voice) and Kay Grant (voice)) presented by Boat-ting. The event takes place at Bar & Co. (Temple Pier, Embankment, London WC2R, England). Admission is £6/4. [Performance diary entry…] [Boat-ting page…]

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tonight: Mathilde 253 with Pat Thomas plus Zolan Quobble

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

Tonight (Saturday, February 19, 2011), at 8:00pm: Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward (drums, percussion and melodica), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Ian Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn)) perform with Pat Thomas (synthesizer) plus Zolan Quobble (spoken word) at the Lewisham Arthouse (140 Lewisham Way, London SE14, England). Admission is £5. [Details…]

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performance: Han-earl Park, Matthew Collings, Owen Green (Edinburgh, 2011)

This Friday (February 18, 2011) at 8:00pm: experimental music performances by Han-earl Park, Matthew Collings and Owen Green. The event takes place at St Cecilia’s Hall (Niddry Street, Cowgate, Edinburgh EH1, Scotland). Recommended donation: £2. [performance diary entry] [facebook event page]

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reminder: Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders at Fizzle

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)

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, February 15, 2011), at 9:00pm: Performance by Paul Dunmall (saxophones), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Mark Sanders (drums) presented by Fizzle. The event takes place at The Lamp Tavern (Barford Street, Birmingham B5, England). Admission is £5. [Details…]

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flyer: Mathilde 253 with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (Cork and Dublin, 2011)

Flyers now released for the performances in Cork and Dublin, Ireland, by Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (trumpet) with Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn).

Mathilde 253 with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith 2011 flyer (copyright 2011 Han-earl Park and unknown photographer) click to download PDF…
flyer © 2011 Han-earl Park and unknown photographer (click to download PDF…)

Performances are as follows:

See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [Details about events/tour…]

Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith will also speak on ‘Ankhrasmation: A Systemic Music Language for Creative Music’ as part of the UCC Music Research Seminar Series. The talk is free, open to the public, and takes place at the UCC Music Building (Sundays Well, Cork) at 2:00 pm on 30 March.

  • Arts Council Ireland logo
  • Music Network logo

Presented with funding from the Music Network Performance and Touring Award, and support from UCC School of Music, Note Productions, the National Concert Hall and the Cork Opera House.

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Point of Departure: Mathilde 253

‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover
‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover

A very nice review of Mathilde 253 (SLAMCD 528) by Brian Morton in the current issue of Point of Departure:

Mathilde 253 is one of those ‘name’ groups that sprang fully-formed from a single playing moment… but seems to have been around for much longer…. Ian Smith is a formidable technician and a profoundly intuitive music maker, with the ability to deliver exactly the right sound, or very often the right sonic texture, at the psychological moment….

Guitarist Han-earl Park is a musical philosopher…. One of the delights of this live session is that one very frequently can’t distinguish who is making particular sounds. There’s not much idiomatic guitar-playing, though Park is very much in the Derek Bailey rather than the Keith Rowe line; he uses relatively orthodox technique to unorthodox ends.

It’s fascinating to find [Charles] Hayward in this setting, taking up the mantle—different as they were—of the late Steve Harris. Mathilde 253 has something of the guttural authority and generosity of gesture one associates with Zaum…. They also make a specific virtue of building other musicians into the group language.

It’s a long set, but has sufficient underlying momentum to pass with deceptive speed. It takes an alert listener to distinguish occasional quietuses in the process with track endings, and there is a moment between ‘Ishikari’ and ‘Jixi’ when it sounds almost as if one aspect of the previous piece has been filleted out for more sustained attention. 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 for him and for the others. 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. [Read the rest…]

— Brian Morton (Point of Departure)

Mathilde 253’s eponymous debut CD (SLAMCD 528) available on SLAM Productions. [More reviews…] [More info…] [Get the CD…]

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reminder: Birmingham, Edinburgh and London*2

Performances coming up this month with Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders; as part of Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith) with Pat Thomas and with Lol Coxhill; plus more, in Birmingham, Edinburgh and London (see the performance diary for up-to-date info).

Hope to see y’all at these events!