Claudia Schwab, Han-earl Park and Dan Walsh (photo: © 2010 Julia Healy)

Thanks to the programmed performers of the night (Kevin Terry, Marian Murray, Jeffrey Weeter, Han-earl Park, Claudia Schwab and Dan Walsh), and special thanks to those who plunged in the deep end during the proceedings (Colm Pattwell and Helena Reilly). Thanks also to Kevin for refereeing on the night, and to photographer Julia Healy [see the photographs (new window)…].

And, of course, special thanks to all who came to support this event!

As with all the recordings since December 2008, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…]

The event will feature Kevin Terry (guitar), Marian Murray (violin) and Jeffrey Weeter (drums), plus Han-earl Park (guitar), Claudia Schwab (violin) and Dan Walsh (drums).

Come along; should be a good one!

Stet Lab returns!

Monday, 11 October 2010

9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)

Upstairs @ The Roundy [map…]
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland

€10 (€5)

Stet Lab, Cork’s monthly improvised music event, returns on Monday, 11 October 2010 with an event of sustained tones, transient noise and sharp attacks at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm).

With performances by two contrasting violin-guitar-drums trios (Kevin Terry (guitar), Marian Murray (violin) and Jeffrey Weeter (drums), plus Han-earl Park (guitar), Claudia Schwab (violin) and Dan Walsh (drums)), the event features some up-and-coming young performers in the Cork improvised music scene in addition to a couple of veterans.

Cork’s monthly improvised music event, Stet Lab is a space in which improvisers (novice, veteran; student, teacher; part- or full-time; amateur, professional; local or visitor) can meet, play and learn from one another. Stet Lab has successfully brought together improvising musicians with varied experiences and from far afield. Since its launch in November 2007, it has hosted twenty-one events with twenty-seven guest artists, including eighteen international visitors.

The event will begin at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm) and entry is €10 (€5).

Next month’s Stet Lab will take place on Monday, 15 November 2010, featuring the London-based trumpeter and cofounder of the London Improvisers’ Orchestra, Ian Smith.

the performers

Jeffrey Weeter is a Cork-based intermedia artist and audio engineer. From 2005-2008 he was designing real time video instruments and performing as the resident VJ for the monthly Wake Up! series at Sonotheque. An audio engineer and theorist, he has recently presented on intermedia at ATMI, ICMC and SEAMUS conferences, and has published in Organised Sound. He has also worked with the intermedia ensembles Powerpoint, Fire and Ice, Lucid Dream Ensemble and Cartwright/Moorefield/Weeter. Weeter’s intermedia work explores the relationships between media via performance. Performances utilize electronic and acoustic instruments coupled with video projection, expanding the dynamics of performance and forging a hybrid palette. Video elements characterized by manipulated and found materials combine with the music to form a mesh of shifting relationships. With the additional incorporation of software such as Max/MSP/Jitter, his work negotiates a shared agency between live performer and random or deterministic processes. He recently completed a Doctorate in Music Composition at Northwestern University and worked as an audio engineer for The Oprah Winfrey Show, Harpo Studios, Chicago.

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park 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 performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries, concert halls, and (ad-hoc) alternative spaces in Denmark, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA.

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. He has appeared at festivals 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).

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

Dan Walsh is a Cork-based drummer studying for a BMus degree at UCC, working within a variety of contexts though specialising in jazz. Having begun playing at the somewhat late age of 16 Dan has already had the privilege of playing with some of the country’s top jazz musicians such as Richie Buckley, Myles Drennan and Micheal Buckley. Currently providing the beat for The Roaring Forties as well as running a monthly Blue Note jazz night, Dan continues to play in as many varying situations as possible in order to continue developing musically.

Claudia Schwab: “Growing up under the roof of my two fiddle playing parents in a small town called Frohnleiten in the southeast of Austria, the joy of making music was an omnipresent part of my childhood.

“I took my first violin lessons with my mother at the age of 5, followed by piano, recorder and singing lessons a few years later in the music school next door. I also had a short affair with the trumpet, ballet and hip-hop dancing. As part of the Schweizerorchester and Jugendorchester Frohnleiten, the school’s orchestra and Joey’s Ba-rock ensemble, I enjoyed a joyful and wild youth with trips to Egypt, Italy, Hungary, Germany and California. Somewhere along the line I started to break free from classical music and tasted into jazz improvisation and folk music from Austria, eastern Europe and Ireland. Especially with folk I bounded with through uncountable nights spent fiddling, yodelling, dancing and singing at folk festival and events to explain the madness that was going on at those would be impossible, but by jesus it surely was wild! The energy I took in and stored at those gatherings fulfills me with musical spark and euphoria until the present day.

“For some reason—and I really don’t remember how it all came about—I became so immensly curious about Irish traditional music, that I went over to Ireland as soon as I graduated from the Musikgymnasium Graz in 2005, on search of learning a few tunes. Well… the right people and surroundings for learning tunes I found and the laid back lifestyle I liked a lot… and I just never quite made it home since! Nevertheless my unplanned emigration to Ireland doesn’t interfer with my love for Austria and Austrian folk and I still find myself jodelling, hiking, dancing and playing polkas over there whenever it’s time to do it. My newest discovery is Northern Indian Classical music, which I am interested in ever since I took a 3 month trip to India in 2008 and started to study Northern Classical Indian music with Sukhdev Prasad Mishra in Benares (Varanasi).

“In 2009 I left my home in Sligo and moved to Cork where I started to study music and psychology at University College Cork. Here I am continuing to do research and studies in traditional music from all over the world, in Indian music, Bach’s solo sonatas, jazz, funk and all other music that gets through to me on an academic level.”

Marian Murray, Alexander Hawkins, Paul Dowling and Tony O’Connor (photo: © 2010 Julia Healy)

Big, big thanks to guest artist Alexander Hawkins for taking time out of his busy schedule to join the Lab; for his generosity and his musicality. I can’t think of a better improviser with whom to close the season.

Thanks also to the double basses of The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of… (Paul Dowling and Tony O’Connor), and to all who performed (Andrea Bonino, Juniper Hill, Marian Murray, Han-earl Park and Kevin Terry). We gratefully acknowledges the support of the UCC School of Music and the Basement Project Space in making the June 2010 event possible. Thank again to Veronica Tadman for work behind the scenes, and to photographer Julia Healy [see the photographs (new window)…].

And as always, thanks to all who came to listen, and to all who supported the Lab during the 2009–2010 season. See you in October!

As with all the recordings since December 2008, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…]

Stet Lab featuring virtuoso pianist-improviser Alexander Hawkins

Tuesday, 15 June 2010

7:15 pm (doors: 7:00 pm)

Ó Riada Hall [map…]
UCC Music Building
Sundays Well
Cork, Ireland

€10 (€5)

Featuring the leading English pianist and improviser Alexander Hawkins, the final Stet Lab event of the 2009-2010 season will take place at 7:15 pm on Tuesday 15 June 2010 at the Ó Riada Hall, UCC Music Building, Sundays Well, Cork, Ireland.

Recently heard performing with the legendary Sonny Simmons, and with the pioneering Joe McPhee, Alexander Hawkins has been dubbed “one of the brightest rising young stars of British jazz and improvisation” by John Eyles (All About Jazz). This appearance at Stet Lab marks his Irish debut.

Hawkins is a powerful and inventive performer best know as a member of the transatlantic Convergence Quartet (with Dominic Lash, Taylor Ho Bynum and Harris Eisenstadt), and his own 6-piece Ensemble (featuring Orphy Robinson, Otto Fischer, Hannah Marshall, Lash and Javier Carmona). In the British improvised music scene Hawkins is the most sought after pianist of his generation, as sideman he has worked in Evan Parker’s trio and quartet, and he has performed with jazz and improvised music luminaries including Louis Moholo-Moholo, Lol Coxhill, John Butcher, Mark Sanders, Steve Williamson, Tom Arthurs, John Russell, Pat Thomas and Eddie Prévost.

Also performing at the event will be Stet Lab regulars including Kevin Terry, Susan Geaney, Marian Murray and Han-earl Park.

Opening the event will be Stet Lab’s resident ensemble The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… led by Cork-based improviser and bass player Tony O’Connor.

The event will begin at 7:15 pm (doors open at 7:00 pm) and entry is €10 (€5).

Stet Lab gratefully acknowledges the support of the UCC School of Music and the Basement Project Space for this month’s event.

the performers

Born in Oxford in 1981, Alexander Hawkins is a pianist described as having a “wizards’ touch” and a “fierce technique.” Indeed, a recent interview commented that he is “just emerging as one of the most striking voices of his generation, both with unique things to say and unique ways of expressing them” (David Grundy, Eartrip).

He leads his own 6-piece Ensemble, featuring Orphy Robinson, Otto Fischer, Hannah Marshall, Dominic Lash, and Javier Carmona. One review of this group’s debut record, No Now Is So (FMR Records), wrote that “barbed dissonance and wrenching romanticism [are the] clear poles by which he operates…such absolute joy and strength…an incredible record” (Clifford Allen, Bagatellen).

He co-leads the transatlantic Convergence Quartet, featuring Dominic Lash, Hawkins, American Taylor Ho Bynum and Canadian Harris Eisenstadt; a band which has toured the United Kingdom twice (2006 and 2009). Their first album placed in two critics’ Top Ten Releases of 2007 lists. Stuart Broomer in Point of Departure wrote of “a fundamental reassertion of composition within improvised music,” and Jay Collins (Cadence) of “highly unpredictable and thought-provoking music to savor with endless room for future consideration.”

Hawkins also plays in the cooperative group Barkingside, whose eponymous debut album (Emanem) placed in the Top Ten lists in 2008. According to John Eyles in All About Jazz “the level of group empathy displayed here is scary.”

As a sideman, he has worked in Evan Parker’s trio and quartet. He also features in Ntshuks Bonga’s Qwati, alongside Claude Deppa, Gail Brand, Greg Bonnie, Oren Marshall, and Mark Sanders.
Other collaborations have included with Louis Moholo-Moholo, Lol Coxhill, John Butcher, Steve Williamson, Jason Yarde, Ray Warleigh, Alan Wilkinson, Tom Arthurs, Tony Marsh, Will Gaines, John Russell, Steve Waterman, Pete McPhail, Pat Thomas, Eddie Prevost, Francine Luce, and many others. He has worked in the London Improvisers’ Orchestra, the Oxford Improvisers Orchestra, and the Pendulum Big Band; and also plays organ in the funk band Big Train’s Haymaker.

He has played at venues including Symphony Hall, Birmingham; London’s Ronnie Scott’s, Vortex Jazz Club, 606, Koko, Spitz, 93 Feet East, Scala, and Cargo; West Road, Cambridge; the Jacqueline Du Pre Music Building, Oxford; St Sulpice, Paris; the Clothworkers’ Centenary Hall, Leeds; and many others. He has been broadcast in various places, including on BBC Radio 3 and BBC 6 Music. Festival appearances have included the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival, and Freedom of the City.

Forthcoming projects include a collaboration with North Americans Rob Brown, Mark Helias and Harris Eisenstadt; the recording of Ntshuks Bonga’s Qwati; the Somedectet large group; and an organ trio with Steve Noble and John Edwards (recording due for release later in the year on Bo’weavil Recordings).

Hawkins seems to get better every time I see him live; every solo he took tonight was a journey, or, if you prefer, a well-told short story. They would begin as jazz explorations, or even boogie-woogie-flavoured romps, before whipping themselves up to a frenzy of clanging clusters, rolling glissandi, and fast-paced, dissonant runs, like a dancer tripping over their feet as the speed of their performance spins out of control. This was both tremendously exciting and the consequence of a logical development—jazz taken to the edge and then pushed over, because there really was no where else to go—and it was always—somehow—contained within the framework of a two or three minute showcase.

(David Grundy, Streams of Expression)

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park 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.

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 concert with Paul Dunmall, with Kato Hideki and Katie O’Looney, and the performance of Pauline Oliveros’ ‘Droniphonia’ alongside the composer. He has appeared at festivals 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).

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

Big thanks to Juniper Hill who, with shape note singers Sam Backer, Claire Hogan, Sadhbh O’Flynn, Barry Twomey and Robert Wedgbury, contributed of the most adventurous of Labs. Thanks also to The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of… Marian Murray, Claudia Schwab and Kevin Terry for revisiting (and reinventing) the Stet Lab double fiddle and guitar format. Kudos to all who performed, regulars (Andrea Bonino, Tony O’Connor and Han-earl Park) and newcomer (Gavin Prior), and to Veronica Tadman for work behind the scenes.

Thanks for listening!

note: Because of the poor audio quality of the recordings (there’s significant distortion on the recordings of the vocal ensemble), I am not releasing the full recording of the May 2010 performances. If I am able to ameliorate the recordings, the complete recording of the May 2010 performances may be available at a later date. In the meantime, if any of the performers involved would like copies of the recording, please get in touch.

As with all the recordings since December 2008, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…]

Also performing will be The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of… Philip Guiton (guitar), Marian Murray (violin), Claudia Schwab (violin) and Kevin Terry (guitar).

This should be very special. Hope to see y’all there!

The event will feature vocalist Juniper Hill and shape note singers, plus the The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Philip Guiton (guitar), Marian Murray (violin), Claudia Schwab (violin) and Kevin Terry (guitar).

To be informed of future events, please join the Stet Lab – announce, or subscribe to the web feed (news only or all blog posts). [More info…]

Stet Lab featuring composer-improviser John Godfrey

Monday, 12 April 2010

9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)

Upstairs @ The Roundy [map…]
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland

€10 (€5)

Stet Lab returns on Monday, 12 April 2010 to the Roundy, Castle Street, Cork and features John Godfrey a veteran of Experimental and New Music in Ireland.

A virtuoso performer on both piano/keyboards and on electric guitar, John Godfrey’s performances encompass composed, improvised and part-composed/part-improvised work.

Regularly seen in Cork and throughout Ireland performing with various ensembles, as a performer Godfrey has also toured extensively through, America, Europe and Australia with Ireland’s premier New Music group, The Crash Ensemble. He is director of The Quiet Music Ensemble, curator of the Quiet Music Festival (Cork), and cofounder and former director of Icebreaker (UK), one of the most successful New Music ensembles.

In addition to these ensembles, Godfrey’s compositions have been performed by ensembles such as the world renowned Bang on a Can All Stars (USA) and Bradyworks (Canada).

Opening the event will be The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of… Enda Buckley (guitar), Tony O’Connor (bass guitar), Owen Sutton (drums) and Athoulis Tsiopani (keyboards). Fusing and fragmenting idioms and traditions, the quartet will leap from country to hardcore in a single bound.

The event will begin at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm) and entry is €10 (€5).

The following month’s Stet Lab will take place on Monday, 10 May 2010, featuring the vocalist, improviser and ethnomusicologist Juniper Hill, plus violinists Marian Murray and Claudia Schwab, and guitarists Kevin Terry and Philip Guiton.

the performers

John Godfrey is a composer and performer and lectures in the Music School of the University College Cork. He has a long history of involvement with new music, as composer, performer, teacher and entrepreneur.

Godfrey’s compositions and arrangements have been performed worldwide and many appear on CD. He has written for many prestigious ensembles, including The Bang On A Can All-Stars (USA), Bradyworks (Canada), The Crash Ensemble (Ireland) and Icebreaker (UK). He has written music for The CruX Dance Company, based in Cork. He recently completed a commission for The Crash Ensemble.

Previously highly influenced by the Hague School, Godfrey’s compositional work is currently focussed on experimental and improvisation-based music, often with live and interactive electronics. It is particularly influenced by experimental music based on acoustical phenomena, such as that by La Monte Young and Alvin Lucier.

In 2006, he was awarded an Equipment Bursary by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon for purchase of equipment for research into live improvising/interactive computer systems. Another Arts Council award in 2007 allowed Godfrey to establish a new professional performing ensemble and to run a major festival of Experimental Music in Cork (summer, 2008). The Festival included the first Deep Listening Retreat with Pauline Oliveros in Ireland, and featured new works, and appearances by, Alvin Lucier, Mark Appelbaum, David Toop and others.

Godfrey performs pre-composed, improvised and semi-improvised work, both on piano/keyboards and on electric guitar.

In 1989 he cofounded, and was subsequently the Musical Director of, the new music group Icebreaker, which became one of the most successful ensembles in its field. The group appeared extensively in Europe and America, and made several CDs for Decca Argo (UK), New Tone (Italy), Donemus (Holland) and Canteloupe (USA). He left Icebreaker in 1997, and in the same year was invited to join Ireland’s premiere new music group, the Crash Ensemble. The latter has also toured extensively, with major appearances in Europe, the US, and Australia, and has made a number of recordings and radio broadcasts

Godfrey has set up many new initiatives in the field of new music in Cork, including two festivals of contemporary music in 1997 and 1998, and has been an outspoken promoter of new music in the city. He works with many local artists and performs with Cork’s improvisation collective The Quiet Club.

Kevin Terry, Evan Dorrian and Marian Murray (photo: © 2010 Julia Healy)

A warm thanks to Evan Dorrian for playing and his generosity on stage, and to all who performed, Stet Lab (ir)regulars (Paul Dowling, Susan Geaney, Juniper Hill, Marian Murray, Han-earl Park, Owen Sutton, Veronica Tadman and Kevin Terry) and newcomers (Philip Guiton and Claudia Schwab). Kudos again to Kevin for refereeing on the night, Veronica for MCing, and to photographer Julia Healy [see the photographs (new window)…].

As always, special thanks to all who came to support this event!

As with all the recordings since December 2008, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…]