A couple of more reviews of Mathilde 253 (SLAMCD 528) including Ken Waxman at JazzWord who says that it’s a “textbook example of high-class improvising” (and I’m a “sharp-witted” guitarist):
Riveting in its scope and cohesion, this seven-track slice of Free Improv captures the sounds made one night at a London club by an ad-hoc assemblage of players, who ordinarily may not have been expected to jell so effectively….
Blowsy pedal-point from the trumpeter; shuffles and drags from [Charles] Hayward; and remarkable strategies from the guitarist which involve investing each string with a different weight as he coaxes tones from near the machine head all the way down past the bridge. Half-valve plunger work from [Ian] Smith includes bent note flutters; while the drummer’s railway signal-crossing-like bell ringing and repetitive cymbal slams provide perfect matches for the guitarist’s flattened string patterns and note extensions…. [Read the rest…]
How’s your Italian? Romualdo Del Noce apprently compares us to the four musketeers:
Ronzante, provocatorio, mai davvero eccessivo ma comunque sfuggente, il contributo di questi quattro moschettieri non è eccepibile sul piano del coinvolgimento, testimoniando un action-playing contemporaneamente colto, “palestrato” e pregno di flussi idiosincrasici. [Read the rest…]
Han-earl Park will be based in Los Angeles, California from June to December 2011, and is seeking formal or ad-hoc playing opportunities. Interested musicians, promoters, venues, please get in touch!
December 2011
New York
Han-earl Park will be based in New York from December 2011, and is seeking formal or ad-hoc playing opportunities. Interested musicians, promoters, venues, please get in touch!
late-2011/early-2012
Europe
Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) is seeking performance opportunities in Europe in late-2011 or early-2012.
In addition, Han-earl Park (guitar) is available for formal or ad-hoc performances.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
I will be moving to Los Angeles, California in June 2011, and will be based there until I head to New York in December 2011. As always, I’m up for formal or ad-hoc playing opportunities. Interested musicians, promoters, venues, please get in touch!
Han-earl Park will be based in Los Angeles, California from June to December 2011, and is seeking formal or ad-hoc playing opportunities. Interested musicians, promoters, venues, please get in touch!
December 2011
New York
Han-earl Park will be based in New York from December 2011, and is seeking formal or ad-hoc playing opportunities. Interested musicians, promoters, venues, please get in touch!
late-2011/early-2012
Europe
Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) is seeking performance opportunities in Europe in late-2011 or early-2012.
In addition, Han-earl Park (guitar) is available for formal or ad-hoc performances.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
Thanks to Catherine Kirby and everyone at the National Concert Hall for able and professional assistance, to John Godfrey, Juniper Hill and Melanie L. Marshall, the then coordinators of the UCC Music Research Seminar Series, who strongly supported Wadada’s visit, and to Mary Hickson, Chris Gaughan, Peter Crudge, Eoin Winning and everyone at the Cork Opera House. Kudos to Tony O’Connor and Athos Tsiopani for the behind-the-scenes help, and to John Hough for the videography and the technical support. Thanks also to Carmel Daly and Mel Mercier of UCC School of Music; Gary Sheehan of Note Productions; Jeffrey Weeter, Paul O’Donnell and, formerly, Jesse Ronneau of the UCC Concerts Committee; and Andreas W. Ziemons, Niamh Ryan and Louise Walsh at Music Network. Thanks to David Leikam of the Arts Noticed, Linda Plover of Blue Monkey PR, Eoin Brady and Bernard Clarke of Nova, and Sandra Quinn at the Evening Echo for their support.
A big thank to the best sound engineer in the world, Alex Fiennes, for amplifying the Cork event, and making the performance sound its best! and to Melanie for the conversations and unofficial roadie duties. Kudos to Marian Murray for jumping into the deep end, a special note of thanks Paul G. Smyth for stepping-up to support this project, and to Dennis Cassidy, Fergus Cullen and Benedict Schlepper-Connolly who came to the rescue when our drum-hire situation briefly went into tail-spin.
And of course a big, big, big thanks to Charles Hayward, Ian Smith and Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith for letting me share in their skill, craft, intelligence, musicality, generosity and sense of play (and their patience with this first-time tour manager): I’ll treasure Charles’ rhythmic travels to the outer reaches of an alternative-universe Caribbean; Ian’s brave counterpoint; and the spiraling, expert stacatto precision of Wadada’s trumpet.
Last but not least, thanks to all who came to listen and witness creative music in real-time!
A special one-of-a-kind improvised music performance by artists from Ireland now based overseas, and Ireland-based artists from abroad takes place on Monday, 4 April 2011, upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Ireland. The event will begin at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm) and admission is €10 (€5 concessions) at the door.
This is a rare performance in Ireland by Catherine Sikora (New York-based, originally from West Cork), a saxophonist with a striking, compelling sound. She has been described as “a free-blowing player’s player with a spectacular harmonic imagination and an evolved understanding of the tonal palette of the saxophone” (Chris Elliot, Seacoast Online). Joining Sikora will be cofounder of the London Improvisers’ Orchestra, trumpeter Ian Smith (London-based, from Dublin), and Cork-based guitarist Han-earl Park (originally from California). Smith and Park are members, with Charles Hayward, of the power-trio Mathilde 253, which will tour Ireland with the legendary composer-improviser Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith this month. The group will be complemented by composer, drummer, intermedia artist and lecturer at the UCC Department of Music, Jeffrey Weeter (who recently moved to Cork from Chicago) known for his innovative work in collaboration with Kate Simko.
about the performers
Since making her way to New York City from West Cork, Ireland to study abstract improvisation, Catherine Sikora has become a well-known face and sound in New York creative music circles. She has worked with Elliott Sharp, Eric Mingus, Michael Evans, Matt Lavelle, Jeremy Bacon, François Grillot and Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber, among many others. Her undeniably unique approach sets her apart from everyone else, even when surrounded by the most original and creative voices in New York City. Sikora is a contributing writer to the book “Silent Solos-Improvisers Speak” (Buddy’s Knife Publishing, Köln, DE) and is currently working on producing a solo recording.
Ian Smith has performed with Evan Parker, John Stevens, Maggie Nicols, Lol Coxhill, Steve Beresford, Eddie Prévost, Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar Arkestra, Reeves Gabrels, John Sinclair, Harris Eisenstadt and many others. In 2000 he recorded his second CD as a leader, Daybreak, with Derek Bailey, Veryan Weston, Gail Brand and Oren Marshall. His own trio, Trian, has played the London Experimental Music Festival and the Soho Jazz Festival. He also participated in a reformation of Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra in 1994. He has collaborated with composer Roger Doyle, winner of the Bourges International Elecro-Acoustic Music Competition, and he has been featured on two instrumental tracks by the hip hop band Marxman. He toured the UK with Butch Morris’ London Skyscraper conduction project. He cofounded the London Improvisers’ Orchestra and The Gathering.
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 and concert halls in Europe and America. He is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, and has recently performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Pat Thomas, Lol Coxhill, Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders, Matana Roberts and Richard Barrett. His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions, and DUNS Limited Edition. Festival appearances include Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), Sonorities (Belfast) and VAIN Live Art (Oxford).
Jeffrey Weeter is an intermedia artist and audio engineer. He has designed real-time video instruments and performed as the resident VJ for the Wake Up! series at Sonotheque. An audio engineer and theorist, he has presented at ATMI, ICMC and SEAMUS, and has published in Organised Sound. He has worked with the ensembles Powerpoint, Fire and Ice, Lucid Dream Ensemble and Cartwright/Moorefield/Weeter. Weeter’s 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. His work negotiates a shared agency between live performer and random or deterministic processes.
