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.

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…]

Neil O’Loghlen, Han-earl Park, Justin Yang and Paul Dowling (photo: © 2009 Julia Healy)

A big thanks to our guest artist Justin Yang for making the journey down to Cork to perform with us.

Kudos to the Stet Lab (ir)regulars who performed on the night (Paul Dowling, Susan Geaney, Marian Murray, Neil O’Loghlen, Han-earl Park, Kevin Terry and Veronica Tadman) and to newcomer Scott Wade, and thanks again to Julia Healy (assisted by Cian Ó Beacháin) for the photography  [see the photographs (new window)…].

Last but not least, thanks to all who came to support this event. We hope to see you again next year!

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…]

Performing with Yang will be Stet Lab (ir)regulars including Han-earl Park, and the event will open with The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Susan Geaney, Marian Murray and Veronica Tadman.

With compelling and dramatic real-time interactions, it’ll be an appropriate end to 2009. Hope to see you there!

In the meantime, here’s a sample of Yang’s work (with Yang on tenor saxophone and Florian Hollerweger on piano) in the outer-reaches of the fuzzy boundary between composition and improvisation:

final Stet Lab event of 2009

Monday, December 7th 2009

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

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

€10 (€5)

The final Stet Lab event of 2009 will take place on Monday, 7th December, upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland. The event will feature the innovative Belfast-based improviser-composer, multi-instrumentalist and computer artist, Justin Yang.

The club’s very first cover band will comprise Justin Yang (saxophones and electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). Park remarks, however, that “who we’re covering, and how we’re covering it, is a little bit of a secret. Consider it a challenge to the audience to discover it themselves.”

A native of California, Justin Yang is currently exploring the use of real-time computer animation as notational and interactive constructs at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast. He is a musician who eschews the prioritization of pitch, rhythm or timbre and instead utilizes communication as the driving factor in his work. A student of both Anthony Braxton and Brian Ferneyhough, Yang says his work “lives in the spaces between composition / improvisation; jazz / classical / vernacular; electro-acoustic / instrumental; notated / graphically-scored / freely-improvised; [and] performance-art / sound-art / installation-art”.

Performing alongside this special guest at Stet Lab is the club’s founder and curator, Cork-based guitarist and improviser Han-earl Park.

Opening the event will be three performers reunited on the Stet Lab stage: Marian Murray (violin), Susan Geaney (flute) and Veronica Tadman (voice). They have been improvising for many years as individuals and as part of larger improvising ensembles but this is the first night for the trio to perform together as a unit.

“I am really looking forward to, and delighted to be, performing with Marian and Susan,” says Tadman who is no stranger to Stet Lab. “I have missed having the two of them at Stet Lab the past year and it will be fantastic to be able to perform with them.”

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

Stet Lab will return in 2010 with Istanbul-based improviser and electronic musician Korhan Erel on Monday, 11th January.

the performers

Justin Yang belongs to a generation of artists which can alternatively be thought of as post-idiom, post-scene, post-fame, post-artistic role (maybe as Morton Feldman suggests post-music). Like many of his contemporaries, Yang’s work lives in the spaces between composition/improvisation; jazz / classical / vernacular; electro-acoustic / instrumental; notated / graphically-scored / freely-improvised; performance-art / sound-art / installation-art; and it is developing within a contemporary movement towards an ontologically new notion of art. Yang’s work, reflecting contemporary practices across the artistic spectrum, is characterized by an intensive exploration of technology. Whether, like Evan Parker or John Butcher, it is the mechanical technology of Adolphe Sax, or the digital world engendered by Max Matthews; as McLuhan after Benjamin posits, the artistic merit of this work is inseparable from its means of production. It is a live art whether free-improvisation, materials algorithmically triggered in real-time, or a collection of electronic oscillations which only make sense when combined acoustically. It is characterized by interactivity, produced by a decentralized, multi-nodal network of operators, making not only the materials an extemporaneous expression but the means of organization an in-the-moment invention as well. The trappings of this work, its essential backbone, is no longer scales or motives, rhythms or timbres, but infrastructure—how to compellingly engage the performer in a network of communication and interaction with other performers, whether it be man or machine—moving the performance model from one of expression/production to that of navigation/exploration; what Anthony Braxton would call ‘the mystery of navigation through form’.

Yang’s 3VDB, inspired by the Morton Feldman composition Three Voices and the work of improviser Derek Bailey, is a self-contained system for performer with live electronics. It is made up of a live microphone, live processing software, two amplified speakers on each side of the performer, programmable foot controllers, and screen-based animated graphic feedback.

Han-earl Park works from/within/around the traditions of idiom-agnostic, experimental improvised musics, sometimes engineering theater, sometimes inventing ritual. He prefers collaborative, multi-authored contexts, and has worked with animators, film makers, poets, theater and mime performers, dancers and installation artists. As a musician (guitar, banjo, bass guitar, piano, electronics and software) 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, and has performed with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, George E. Lewis, J. D. Parran, Paul Dunmall, Pauline Oliveros, Kato Hideki, 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.

Park is a recipient of grants from the Arts Council of Ireland, and a recipient of the Ahmanson Foundation Scholarship and the Calarts Scholarship. 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). 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), and You Are Hear (at www.youarehear.co.uk) which was selected as Critics’ Choice by The Independent (UK).

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

Featuring the saxophonist, composer-improviser and digital artist Justin Yang, this will be the final Lab of 2009. The event will mark two firsts: the first Stet Lab cover band (Justin Yang with Han-earl Park) and the first Stet Lab all women band (Susan Geaney, Marian Murray and Veronica Tadman).

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…]

Antonio D’Intino, Dario Fariello and Kevin Terry (photo: © 2009 Julia Healy)

A very warm thank you to the visiting trio, Filario Farinoppo (Dario Fariello, Filippo Giuffrè and Antonio D’Intino), and to the Stet Lab (ir)regulars who performed on the night (Susan Geaney, Han-earl Park and Kevin Terry). Kudos to the Lab’s backstage personnel (Veronica Tadman, Kevin, Han-earl and, as of this month, Tony O’Connor) for making this happen, and special thanks to photographer Julia Healy who stepped up for the job at the last minute [see her cool pics (new window)…]. We’re very grateful to Ciarán Meade for his help, and the Lewis Glucksman Gallery for their generous support, in making the November event possible.

As always, a very big thanks to all who came to listen—newcomers and regulars alike. We hope to see you at the Lab as it continues its third year!

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…]

In addition, The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… guitarists Han-earl Park and Kevin Terry will open the event.

It’ll be an exciting evening of real-time mutations and hybrids. Stet Lab would like to thank all who participated (performers, audience and behind-the-scenes helpers) over the last two years. Hope to see you over the next coming months!

about Stet Lab Year Three

Stet Lab (Cork’s monthly improvised music event) enters its third year (details below)!

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

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Upstairs @ The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland
9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)
Admission: €10/5.

Stet Lab’s third birthday! Featuring Filario Farinoppo: Dario Fariello (saxophones, viola, electronics and little instruments), Filippo Giuffrè (guitar and electronics) and Antonio D’Intino (bass, electronics and little instruments), plus The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Han-earl Park and Kevin Terry (guitars).

Monday, December 7, 2009

Upstairs @ The Roundy
9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)
Admission: €10/5.

Me, Bailey; You, Parker: Justin Yang (saxophones) with Han-earl Park (guitar), plus The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Susan Geaney (flute), Marian Murray (violin) and Veronica Tadman (voice).

Monday, January 11, 2010

Upstairs @ The Roundy (TBC)
9:00 pm

Featuring Korhan Erel (electronics). Details to follow….

Monday, February 8, 2010

Upstairs @ The Roundy (TBC)
9:00 pm

Featuring Evan Dorrian (drums). Details to follow….

Monday, March 8, 2010

Upstairs @ The Roundy (TBC)
9:00 pm

Featuring Paul Stapleton (new musical instruments / sound sculptures). Details to follow….

about Stet Lab

Since November 2007, Stet Lab has successfully brought together improvising musicians with varied experiences and from far afield. Cork, Ireland’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.

about Stet Lab: Year Two

Looking back at the 2008/9 season, Stet Lab founder and curator, Han-earl Park says, “Stet Lab’s second year has been a triumph. We’ve been privileged to have hosted such a variety of improvising musicians: veteran of the international improvisation scene, Paul Dunmall, heavy-hitters such as Mark Sanders, the extraordinary Franziska Schroeder, the dramatic Katie O’Looney, the virtuoso Jamie Smith, and the… indescribable Jonny Marks. It’s also been a time to renew musical relationships with the mutant fiddle-playing of Murray Campbell, and the Cornelius-Cardew-meets-Joe-Harriott sound world of Bruce Coates.

“And we’ve witnessed the real burgeoning of young, local improvisers. The year has been a success beyond what we could have hoped for when we entered year two back in November [2008], and I look forward to musical interactions above-and-beyond.”

what to expect: Stet Lab Year Three

The 2009/2010 season promises to expand and diversify the improvisative geo-politics of Stet Lab. November will see the Lab welcome Filario Farinoppo—a trio of improvisers from Bologna, Italy—and the December event features the Californian composer-performer Justin Yang. Through 2010, the Lab will host visits by improvisers including Paul Stapleton (N. Ireland), Alexander Hawkins (England), Korhan Erel (Turkey) and Evan Dorrian (Australia).

Thanks to special guest Murray Campbell who (despite battling a cold) energized the event and injected enthusiasm and his unique brand of humor into the proceedings. Kudos also to OPKA (Owen Sutton, Paul Dowling, Kevin Terry and Andrea Bonino) for kicking things off for 2009, and to all who performed including returning regulars (Susan Geaney and Tony O’Connor), old-timers (Han-earl Park and Veronica Tadman), and newcomers to the Stet Lab stage (Vicky Langan). Thanks again to John Hough for acting as the photographer for Stet Lab.

And, as always, special thanks to all who came to listen—newcomers and regulars alike.

As with last month’s, this month’s recordings are covered under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. [More info…] Again, we’re very interested in hearing any thoughts you may have regarding the license so please leave a comment on the relevant thread.

copy, distribute and transmit the work

provided you meet the following conditions:

Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Noncommercial. You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

No Derivative Works. You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

This would allow noncommercial distribution (and only without modification) provided the recording remains attributed “in the manner specified by the author or licensor”. I propose that any given recording be attributed, at a minimum, to the all performers on that recording. (For example, ‘which side are you on anyway?’ would have to be attributed to Andrea Bonino, Eoin Callery, Murray Campbell, Susan Geaney, Marian Murray, Neil O’Loghlen, Han-earl Park, Veronica Tadman and Kevin Terry.)

In practice, this should not create any significant change from the current situation, with the following exception: it will be difficult to subsequently alter the license, or withdraw a recording licensed in this manner.

Regarding the existing recordings, this will be an opt-in process. In other words, only in cases where I can gain agreement from all participating performers will the recording be moved onto the Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works License.

This will be a big job, and I’d like some discussion of this, so comments are very, very welcome. (You may, of course, contact me with your comments, but I would prefer public discussion, and to avoid anonymous comments, if possible, especially if you are a performer represented in the Stet Lab recordings.)