This coming Monday (20 October 2014), at 8:30pm (doors: 8:15pm): Han-earl Park (guitar), Roslyn Steer (bass) and Dan Walsh (drums), with Kevin Terry (guitar) and John Godfrey (guitar) perform Upstairs at The Roundy (Castle Street, Cork, Ireland) [map…]. Admission is one euro note of your choice (€5/10/20…) at the door.
This Sunday (September 28, 2014), at 8:30pm (doors: 8:15pm): Han-earl Park (guitar), Roslyn Steer (bass), Dan Walsh (drums) and Tony O’Connor (bass) plus very special guest Caroline Pugh (voice) perform Upstairs at The Roundy (Castle Street, Cork, Ireland) [map…]. Admission is one euro note of your choice (€5/10/20…) at the door.
Sunday, September 28 and Monday, October 20, 2014, at 8:30pm (doors: 8:15pm): performances by Han-earl Park (guitar), Roslyn Steer (bass) and Dan Walsh (drums), plus guests including Caroline Pugh, Tony O’Connor, Kevin Terry and John Godfrey, take place Upstairs at The Roundy (Castle Street, Cork, Ireland) [map…]. Admission is one euro note of your choice (€5/10/20…) at the door.
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [The Roundy page: Sep 28…] [Facebook event: Sep 28…] [Facebook event: Oct 20…]
09–24–14: add Caroline Pugh to the September 28 lineup.
Although nowhere near a big a revision as the last major update, I’ve made some significant changes to my bio. Below is the new verbose, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, 472 word version [shorter versions…].
Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) (www.busterandfriends.com) has been crossing borders and performing fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, always traditional, open improvised musics for twenty years. He has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries, concert halls, and (ad-hoc) alternative spaces in Austria, Denmark, Germany, England, Ireland, The Netherlands, Scotland and the USA.
Park engages a radical, liminal, cyborg virtuosity in which mind, body and artifact collide. He is driven by the social and revolutionary potential of real-time interactive performance in which tradition and practice become creative problematics. As a constructor of musical automata, he is interested in partial, and partially frustrating, context-specific artifacts; artifacts that amplify social relations and corporeal identities and agencies.
Ensembles include Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, Eris 136199 with Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora, and Numbers with Richard Barrett. Park is the constructor of the machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++, and instigator of Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Mark Sanders, Josh Sinton, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Gino Robair, Tim Perkis, Andrew Drury, Pat Thomas and Franziska Schroeder. He has guested with Gargantius Effect (Murray Campbell and Randy McKean), the Mark Hanslip/Dominic Lash/Phillip Marks Trio, and Swim This (Nick Didkovsky, Gerry Hemingway and Michael Lytle); performed as part of large ensembles led by Wadada Leo Smith, Evan Parker and Pauline Oliveros; and participated in improvisative meetings with Gerald Cleaver, Andrea Parkins, Tom Rainey, Mike Pride, Anna Webber, Jack Wright and Ingrid Laubrock. He has studied with improviser-composers Wadada Leo Smith, Richard Barrett, Joel Ryan, Mark Trayle, Chick Lyall and David Rosenboom, composers Clarence Barlow and Marina Adamia, and interactive media artist Sara Roberts.
Festival appearances include Freedom of the City (London), Sonorities (Belfast), International Society for Improvised Music (New York), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), VAIN Live Art (Oxford), Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (Los Angeles) and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam). In addition to numerous self-released albums, his recordings have been released by Slam Productions, Creative Sources, Vicmod Records, FrImp, Owlhouse Recordings and DUNS Limited Edition. His music has been featured on anthologies released by Bridge Records, farpoint recordings and Frog Peak Music. He has performed live on Resonance FM (London), Drift Radio (Scotland), and KVMR 89.5 FM (Nevada County), interviewed on RTÉ Morning Ireland and RTÉ Nova (Ireland), and his recordings have been broadcast around the world.
Park taught improvisation at University College Cork (2006–2011), and founded and curated (2007–2011) Stet Lab, a space for improvised music in Cork. He is a recipient of grants from the Arts Council of Ireland (2007, 2008 and 2009) and Music Network (2009 and 2010), and of the Ahmanson Foundation Scholarship (1999) and the CalArts Scholarship (1999 and 1999–2000).
[Han-earl Park’s biography (16–472 words) plus press quotes…]
I’ve also taken the opportunity to create a new video playlist of selected performances. With 52 videos, and clocking in at around 13 hours, my previous playlist of ‘recent’ performances was no longer able to be an effective portfolio reel. Thanks as always to the videographers (Don Mount, Kevin Reilly and Scott Friedlander), and to all the performers.
Another summary of the updates to my scrapbook since the last review. A few newer clips from Brooklyn and New York which include some of the best music I’ve been involved in (the duo with Gerald Cleaver, in particular, has, for me, some of my best playing), plus a blast from the past: Mathilde 253 in Cork. With the latest updates, I’ve also taken the opportunity to split the scrapbook across two pages (with so much embedded media, it was getting near impossible for those with slower computers and/or connections to load the page).
Please note that all music and audio recordings © + ℗ their respective owners (i.e. these are not covered by a Creative Commons License).
Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (saxophones) and Mike Pride (drums).
Evan Parker (saxophone) and Han-earl Park (guitar), plus Peter Evans (trumpet) and Okkyung Lee (’cello).
Gerald Cleaver (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Mathilde 253 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Charles Hayward: drums; and Ian Smith: trumpet).
In case you hadn’t guessed, Stet Lab—at one time, Cork’s monthly space for improvised music—is, and has been for some time, on indefinite hiatus:
As previously stated, this site [www.busterandfriends.com/stet] exists as an archive of Lab activities between November 2007 and April 2011: you can listen to the recordings, and read the reports.
If you are an improviser looking for performance opportunities in and around Cork, please contact the former curator Han-earl Park who may be able to help.
Between November 2007 and April 2012, Stet Lab successfully brought together improvising musicians with varied experiences and from far afield. Over forty Stet Lab events featured more than eighty performers including twenty-four visiting artists. Cork’s monthly improvised music event, Stet Lab was a space in which improvisers (novice, veteran; student, teacher; part- or full-time; amateur, professional; local or visitor) could meet, play and learn from one another.
Scott Friedlander has uploaded video recordings of Gowanus Company (November 26, 2013). As I wrote previously:
Big, heart-felt thanks to Kyoko and Josh for organizing the event. I’m touched, and could not have asked for a better send-off. Thanks to everyone who made music, and for creating that welcoming, friendly vibe. (And a particular pleasure to finally perform with Kyoko, Ken and Fay!) And thanks again to Scott Friedlander for the documentation.
From that vocal/guitar chorus (Kyoko, Viv, Fay, Nick and I) to the jazz racket of Ken and I joined by Tom and Ingrid… my spirits have been lifted!
Gowanus Company was curated by Kyoko Kitamura, Josh Sinton and Han-earl Park. Performers were Dan Blake (saxophones), Olie Brice (double bass), Viv Corringham (voice), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Michael Evans (drums), Ken Filiano (double bass), Christopher Hoffman (’cello), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Kyoko Kitamura (voice), Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone), Jeremiah Lockwood (voice and guitar), Russ Lossing (piano), Han-earl Park (guitar), Tom Rainey (drums), Josh Sinton (saxophone) and Fay Victor (voice). [Details…]
I’m honored to have been part of a fantastic iteration of Gowanus Company (November 26), and feel enormously blessed to have been welcomed into such an incredible community. Big, heart-felt thanks to Kyoko and Josh for organizing the event. I’m touched, and could not have asked for a better send-off. Thanks to everyone who made music, and for creating that welcoming, friendly vibe. (And a particular pleasure to finally perform with Kyoko, Ken and Fay!) And thanks again to Scott Friedlander for the documentation.
From that vocal/guitar chorus (Kyoko, Viv, Fay, Nick and I) to the jazz racket of Ken and I joined by Tom and Ingrid… my spirits have been lifted!
This Tuesday (November 26, 2013), at 7:00pm: My last gig in Brooklyn before the Big Move!
In the spirit of Derek Bailey’s Company week, the evening will feature a series of never-before-seen and never-to-be-seen-again groups. [Read the rest…]
Gowanus Company with Dan Blake (saxophone), Olie Brice (double bass), Viv Corringham (voice and electronics), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Michael Evans (drums), Ken Filiano (double bass), Christopher Hoffman (’cello), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Kyoko Kitamura (voice), Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone), Jeremiah Lockwood (voice and guitar), Russ Lossing (piano), Han-earl Park (guitar), Tom Rainey (drums), Josh Sinton (saxophone and clarinet), Fay Victor (voice) and others takes place at Douglass Street Music Collective (295 Douglass Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY 11217) [map and directions…]. $10 suggested donation.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013, at 7:00pm: Gowanus Company with Dan Blake (saxophone), Olie Brice (double bass), Viv Corringham (voice and electronics), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Michael Evans (drums), Ken Filiano (double bass), Christopher Hoffman (’cello), Jason Kao Hwang (violin), Kyoko Kitamura (voice), Ingrid Laubrock (saxophone), Jeremiah Lockwood (voice and guitar), Russ Lossing (piano), Han-earl Park (guitar), Tom Rainey (drums), Josh Sinton (saxophone and clarinet), Fay Victor (voice) and others. Curated by Kyoko Kitamura, Josh Sinton and Han-earl Park, the event takes place at Douglass Street Music Collective (295 Douglass Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn, NY 11217) [map and directions…]. $10 suggested donation.
My last gig in Brooklyn, New York, and, for me, it’s my leaving party. I’m honored to be part of this event instigated by Kyoko and Josh.
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [DSMC page…]
Three gigs; and I couldn’t ask for a more varied and musically valuable seven days.
I learned a heck of a lot (about my capabilities as an improviser, and about the social dynamics of interactive play) performing with Evan Parker. Still reeling from the experience, I’m grateful for the opportunity to play with Mr Parker again, and to have sat in with the Bleeding Edge Trio.
The performance with Catherine Sikora and Josh Sinton was the most craftily accomplished. We’ve been engineering, navigating and negotiating these improvisative, tactical considerations since February, and it’s been a pleasure and a privilege to be working with two imaginative and gutsy performers. I expect our performance at Harvestworks in October will be something else. (Plus thanks to Josh for the post-gig reflections.)
If I had to choose just one of these gigs as a stand-out though, it might have to be the duo with the stupendously creative Andrea Parkins. Insanely fun! Despite (or perhaps becuase of) severe technical limitations, I found myself in some very odd places. (Andrea was one of the first NYC people I contacted before moving here, so this performance was looong overdue.) Let’s play again. I had a blast.
Big thanks to coconspirators Michael Foster and Lisa Mezzacappa, to Mike Pride for the funniest post-gig story telling, and to the documetarists Don Mount and Jeremiah Cymerman. Finally, special thanks to Louise and Tom for bringing their new family to The Stone.
Next up: performances coming up in October as part of Eris 136199 (Nick Didkovsky, Han-earl Park and Catherine Sikora), and with Catherine Sikora and Josh Sinton for another round with Metis 9. See the performance diary for up-to-date info.
