buster 
Photo by John Hough (click for more images…)
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) (www.busterandfriends.com) works from/within/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 worked with animators, film makers, poets, theater and mime performers, dancers and installation artists. He has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries, concert halls, and (ad-hoc) alternative spaces in Denmark, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA.
As a constructor of low- and mid-tech electronic and software devices, and as an occasional score-maker, he is interested in partial, and partially frustrating, context-specific artifacts; artifacts that amplify social relationships and, in some instances, objects that obscure the location of the author.
He is involved in ongoing collaborations with Bruce Coates, and with Franziska Schroeder, fifteen year long associations with Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell. Recent performances include ensemble Mathilde 253 (Park, Charles Hayward and Ian Smith) with Lol Coxhill, a duo concert with Paul Dunmall, a trio with Kato Hideki and Katie O’Looney, an improvisative meeting with Thomas Buckner and Jesse Ronneau, and the performance of Pauline Oliveros’ ‘Droniphonia’ alongside the composer. Park has also performed with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, George E. Lewis, J. D. Parran, Mark Sanders, Chick Lyall, Jan Langedijk, Stu Ritchie, Koen Nutters, Pedro Rebelo, Elspeth Murray, Mark Trayle and Hannes Raffaseder. He is also the constructor of io 0.0.1 beta++, an interactive musical artifact, and cofounder of the Church of Sonology. In addition to Smith, Lyall and Trayle, he has studied with the improviser-composers Richard Barrett, Joel Ryan and David Rosenboom, composers Clarence Barlow and Marina Adamia, and the installation artist Sara Roberts.
Park is a recipient of grants from the Arts Council of Ireland and Music Network, and a recipient the Ahmanson Foundation Scholarship and the Calarts Scholarship. He has appeared at festival including Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), Sonorities (Belfast) and VAIN Live Art (Oxford). In addition to numerous self-released CDs, his work has been released by Owlhouse Recordings, frimp.co.uk and Frog Peak Music. He has performed live on Resonance FM (London) and on Drift Radio (at mediascot.org), and his recordings have been featured on Kalvos and Damian’s New Music Bazaar (Vermont), RTÉ Morning Ireland and You Are Hear (at youarehear.co.uk) which was selected as Critics’ Choice by The Independent (UK).
Park founded and curates Stet Lab, a monthly improvised music space in Cork, Ireland, and teaches improvisation at the UCC School of Music.
press and quotes
“Careful, crafty and well-played with that restrained yet fractured guitar that sounds so good. Han-earl’s sound seems to be in between Derek Bailey and Philip Gibbs.”
— Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery, NY)
“Innovative…”
— The Computer Music Journal
“Electro weirdo…”
— BBC – Collective
“Doesn’t sound like sewage!”
— Kalvos and Damian’s New Music Bazaar
“Beautiful music, incredibly focused…!”
— Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve / Punos Music)
“Bandy-legged Han-earl Park (gitah)… drugged the ref and delivered a few kidney punches with a horseshoe in his boxing mitt.”
— Jamie Smith (Owlhouse Recordings)
