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).
I can’t wait to share this recording with you! Skronkily rockin’ music from a skronkily rockin’ trio. Please sign-up to my newsletter to keep up-to-date about this upcoming album.
How does “barnstorming saxophone” relate to “alien facehugger tendrils”? “a mad scramble up loose terrain” to “incendiary guitar wrangling”? and “shimmering vibrating guitar screeds” to “subversion of traditional rock guitar tropes”? Find out in Paul Khimasia Morgan’s Sound Projector review of Eris 136199:
I’m impressed…. I’ve found myself coming back to this album again and again. The more attention you give it, the more you get out of it. I find it an exhilarating, intense space to inhabit for an hour and ten minutes. Park, Sikora and Didkovsky have constructed an extremely captivating slew of wistful improvised post-jazz noises. Han and Nick’s guitars are approached as sound-making devices much of the time, and as such take on tight supporting roles for Catherine Sikora’s barnstorming saxophone in muscular and fascinating ways. This is none of your dour, worthy, self-sacrificing hair-shirt improvising or take-no-prisoners blast of willful abandonment; you can hear the musicians bouncing off each other and having fun. These musicians are working at their limits, both physically and psychically. [Read the rest…]
And as a bonus, according to Morgan, the CD’s “geometric designs on the sleeve recall a hyperactive quasi-sci-fi futurism of late 80s and early 90s rave/acid house flyers”!
Thanks so very much to Morgan and to The Sound Projector for the wonderful review. It’s the kind of review that would’ve persuaded me to go get the album right then and there 🙂 (Plus, I think “a kind of melding of prog-jazz and No-Wave” might be tied as my favorite description of the album.)
CD: €11 minimum (‘name your price’) plus shipping.*†
Download: €8 minimum (‘name your price’).†
* Limited edition glass-mastered CD. CD includes additional material (liner notes, artwork, etc.) not included in the download version of the album.
*† Both digital and physical purchases give you streaming via the free Bandcamp app, and option to download the recording in multiple formats including lossless.
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.
A “control of noise”, “saturated electricity” and “fighting… with the underground”? or “free-wheeling” with experiments in sound injected with lyricism? or “electronic mayhem” with “a full bodied sound”? In among the reviews of Eris 136199’s performance at Jazz em Agosto, David Cristol, writing in Jazz Magazine, follows “a trio of an absolute radicality”, and concludes by discovering “art music!”
Pour la dernière soirée, le directeur artistique Rui Neves nous a réservé un trio d’une radicalité absolue, proposition courageuse voire casse-gueule dans le contexte d’une salle de plusieurs centaines de places…. Et même pour les spectateurs aguerris, il s’est agi sans nul doute du concert le plus difficile d’accès du festival, présentant peu de repères auxquels se raccrocher. Il faut ici saluer la grande majorité des spectateurs, déterminés à suivre les musiciens dans leur recherche ou idée fixe, voir où le voyage va les mener. Le son est magnifiquement restitué. Park joue beaucoup de l’accordage de la main gauche, dans le registre de la basse. Les guitaristes dessinent des paysages métalliques, via un jeu non conventionnel, selon leurs propres codes, multipliant les dissonances…. Catherine Sikora est une révélation, son jeu oblique, sensible et lumineux offrant un contrepoint idéal aux élucubrations crépusculaires de ses partenaires. Le ténor adopte une approche décidément tonale et mélodique, et néanmoins exploratoire. D’un bout à l’autre un set sans concession aucune, dont on ressort essoré, mais ravi que de telles expériences soient tentées. Art music! [Read the rest…]
Meanwhile, Erik Ellestad, reviewing Eris’ most recent album, sketches a verisimilar portrait of the trio (Han-earl Park “functioning as the de facto rhythm section in Eris 136199”; Catherine Sikora’s “unvarnished and unapologetic sound… while at the same time maintaining a core of melodicism”, and Nick Didkovsky expressing “digitally warped washes of static-like sound and angry slashes of melody”):
It is 50-plus minutes of riveting music making from three fantastic and fascinating musicians. I’ve been listening avidly to Eris 136199 all week on my commute and have looked forward to it every day. Wondering what new thing I will discover in Sikora’s technique while at the same time trying to pay attention and tease out which guitarist is playing what.
Obviously, Eris 136199 isn’t Lawrence Welk, however, there is something in the players expressiveness and in their interactions which prevents it from being too harsh or overwhelming.
Rough enough to keep it exciting, yet tender enough to keep you coming back. [Read the rest…]
I think I might want “Eris 136199 isn’t Lawrence Welk” on a T-shirt.
CD: €11 minimum (‘name your price’) plus shipping.*†
Download: €8 minimum (‘name your price’).†
* Limited edition glass-mastered CD. CD includes additional material (liner notes, artwork, etc.) not included in the download version of the album.
*† Both digital and physical purchases give you streaming via the free Bandcamp app, and option to download the recording 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.
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.
Han-earl Park é daqueles músicos guiados por uma insatisfação permanente. Cada novo projeto a que se dedica é uma nova oportunidade para testar, com um empenho quase científico, os limites da melodia, do noise e da noção ciber-futurista da música que leva para palco. Em Eris 136199, o mistério começa desde logo na designação, alastrando depois à relação desafiante que a sua guitarra estabelece com o saxofone de Catherine Sikora e com a guitarra de Nick Didkovsky (fundador e líder do grupo Dr. Nerve, nome de referência da cena vanguardista da Downtown nova-iorquina). [Read the rest…]
Come along and hear what this gentlest of riotous ensembles can do is a beautifully acoustic environment. [Get tickets…]
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.
Predilections, appetites, egos, histories and traditions? Can choices be apt to the point of prescient, or left-field to the point of inappropriate? What do I hope audiences get from my music? Does Jeff VanderMeer make another appearance in one of my interviews? and do I reveal myself a Marxist? Find out in Other Side Of The Tracks: Artist Q&A with Han-Earl Park, Eris 136199:
How would you describe the type of music that Eris 136199 creates?
Noisy. Discordant. Melodious. Pretty in its own not alway predictable way. And by discordant, I don’t mean in terms of harmonic intervals, but in terms of on-stage, real-time musical interactions; in terms of a kind of heterogeneity of idiom and tradition. For me, Eris’ is a music that doesn’t desire to create, necessarily, a synthesis or a coherence or even an agreement, but one which trusts, and takes pleasure, in interaction itself. It’s a music that’s, in a way, compromised, or a music which is a succession of collisions—of idioms, of traditions, of histories, of desires, of tactics. But the music creates a situation that is, in its own way, beautiful. [Read the rest…]
Many thanks to Caitriona O’Mahony at the Improvised Music Company for the questions.
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.
This Thursday (August 8, 2019), at 8:00pm: get an earful of improvised goodness as Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) launch their second European mini-tour with a performance at the Vortex Jazz Club (11 Gillett Square, London N16 8AZ). It’s the first time we get to present our real-time collisions of awesome melodic logic, glitch’n’riff anthems, and systems music to London, Lisbon and Dublin. As Nick wrote before our previous tour:
I have never been able to detect any implicit rules, favorite things to do, implied directions, or aesthetic goals in this band. People start playing, they stop, start again, stop again… insofar as music is a temporal art, that’s pretty elemental behavior, and is about the only binding agreement in Eris 136199 that I have detected. Which I recognize is barely a statement, as the passage of time is inviolable in all contexts, be they free or restrictive. Physics doesn’t care. But Eris cares a lot. Time is a precious thing to Han and Catherine, and the action of scattering sound onto it is a sacred and mysterious ritual. [Read the rest…]
Am I excited? That’d be an understatement. Come and catch Eris in play, and, to quote a Jazz Noise, let the “insane brain surgeon in through your ear.” [Get tickets…] [Special offer…]
Eris 136199 is also performing…
August 11: Lisbon, Portugal; and August 12: Dublin, Ireland. [Details…]
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.
