Watch Sara Neidorf’s performance of ‘Aspect,’ a videographic recomposition by Han-earl Park with Neidorf, with music by Sara Neidorf with Park. The performance was recorded on November 15 as part of DISTORTIONS, the two-evening event of improvised music and moving images.
A big, big thanks to Sara for commiting to the collboration, and for their smart, oblique, creative choices. Thanks also to everyone who participated in this project—Carina Khorkhordina, Camila Nebbia, Yorgos Dimitriadis, Rabih Beaini and everyone at Morphine Raum—and to initiative neue musik berlin without whose support this project—these compositions, these performances—would not have been possible.
Video credits
Music by Sara Neidorf with Han-earl Park.
Videographic recompositions by Han-earl Park with Sara Neidorf.
Recorded November 15, 2025 at Morphine Raum, Berlin.
Sound engineer: Rabih Beaini. Second engineer: Malte Andrae.
Recording assistants: Valentina Costa.
Mixed by Han-earl Park.
Carina Khorkhordina (b. 1991) is a trumpet player, composer, photographer, video-maker, and interdisciplinary artist from Kaliningrad, Russia, and living in Berlin since 2014. Aside from developing her music on the trumpet and playing concerts she is working on a series of site-specific performances in the public space of Berlin and other places in collaboration with different musicians, presented as short films and bringing together her interest in urban space, sonic possibilities of the trumpet, field recordings and video documentation.
She has been performing in the context of improvised and experimental music since 2017. The active groups include the duo with Eric Bauer, Slurge (with Eric Bauer, Burkhard Beins, Wolfgang Seidel), Klub Demboh, the duo with Axel Dörner and the trio with Eric Bauer and Lena Czerniawska, as well as a variety of ongoing collaborations.
Since 2020 she has been working on a series of site-specific compositions in Berlin’s public space together with various musicians, presented in the form of short films focusing on individual trumpet sound and musical language in the context of urban space, as well as field recordings and video. She is also an artist who works with photography. Between 2016 and 2020 she was a student of various photography programs at FotoDepartament Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. Between 2009 and 2020 she participated in several photographic and interdisciplinary exhibitions.
Camila Nebbia is a saxophone player, composer, improviser, visual artist, curator and educator debasing hierarchical systems by exploring migrational counterpoints through multiple, but minimally separated, mediums. From Buenos Aires, Argentina, based in Berlin, Germany, the multidisciplinary artist layers her practice through the creation and destruction of archival memory. Has released as a band leader and solo performer ‘A veces la luz de lo que existe resplandece solamente a la distancia’ (Kuai 2017), ‘De este lado’ (Club del disco 2019), Aura (ears&eyes records 2020), ‘Corre el río de la memoria’ (ramble records 2021), ‘Presencias’ (Sound Holes 2021), ‘Una ofrenda a la ausencia’ (Relative Pitch Records 2023), ‘La permanencia de los ecos’ (577 Records 2023). Played and recorded with many artists of the international scene such as Valentin Garvie, El devenir del río, Burka, Paula Shocron, Barbara Togander, Patrick Shiroishi, Paul Pignon, Vinnie Sperrazza, Katt Hernandez, Kenneth Jimenez, Lesley Mok, Violeta García, Axel Filip, Susana Santos Silva, Tom Rainey, Elsa Bergman, l’ Arfi collective of Lyon, Joanna Mattrey, Micheal Formaneck, Vincent Drombowski’s Flow regulator, Sofia Borges, John Hughes, among others. Co-creator and curator of the collective interdisciplinary group and improvised music series ‘La Jaula se ha vuelto pájaro y se ha volado,’ the interdisciplinary festival Guillotina Fest and creator and curator of the streaming concert series called ‘A door in the mountain.’ Runs the concert series and independent label ‘Disfigured Rivers’ based in Berlin. Participated of many festivals around the world such as Winter Jazz Fest NYC co-presented with M3 (U.S), Buenos Aires Jazz Festival (ARG), Lima Jazz Festival (PE), Diskurs Festival (DE), Ultima Oslo (NO), among others, and has assisted to several residencies such as, ART OMI (NYC), SIM (NYC) Jazz & Creative Music dictated by Tyshawn Sorey and Vijay Iyer (CA), Konvent Zero (ES) UNCOOL (CH), Ensemble Evolution (US), CirkusVranen (SE), CCK with Tim Berne, Marilyn Crispell & Ben Goldberg (AR), among others.
Shifting and switching from No Wave skronk to interstellar guitarist-as-drummer virtuosity, from stampedes of miniature Pomeranian Buffalos to All-You-Zombies heterophonies, Han-earl Park (박한얼) has been performing beautifully messy, joyously difficult, ambiguous and discordant improvised musics for over twenty years.
Park is drawn to the noisy poetry of interactive play; its pleasurable complexities, and joyous discords. He has become increasingly fascinated by the possibilities of refracting the improvisative through narrative tropes and forms, sometimes transposing techniques from fiction and cinema. He seeks musics that are ‘inconvenient,’ that resist easy resolution, and seeks practices that, despite understanding that connection is, in a way, unknowable, take seriously consent, affinity, agency, trust and compassion.
Park is the mastermind behind ensembles including Eris 136199 with Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky, Juno 3 with Lara Jones and Pat Thomas, and Gonggong 225088 with Yorgos Dimitriadis and Camila Nebbia. Park also performs as part of a duo with Richard Barrett, and as part of Thoughts of Trio’s dark extemporizations, the avant-disco of QLH, and The Names’ hyper-lyricism. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Dunmall, Pauline Oliveros, Charles Hayward, Mark Sanders, Lol Coxhill, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Evan Parker, Ingrid Laubrock, Josh Sinton and Franziska Schroeder. His constructions and compositions include ‘Bandwidth,’ a videographic work for improvisation; the online #lockdownminiature series; the machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++; and Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics.
His ensembles have appeared at festivals including Jazz em Agosto (Lisbon), EFG London Jazz Festival, Brilliant Corners (Belfast), Freedom of the City (London), ISIM (New York), dialogues festival (Edinburgh) and Sonic Acts (Amsterdam). Park’s recordings have been released by labels including NEWJAiM, Waveform Alphabet, Ramble Records, SLAM Productions, Creative Sources and DUNS Limited Edition.
Sara Neidorf (they/them, b. 1990, Philadelphia) is a Berlin-based drummer and film curator. Neidorf drums in the genre-expansive, heavy bands Mellowdeath, Mad Kate | The Tide, Soporose, and Sarattma. As a session musician, they’ve recorded and toured internationally with such artists as The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Peaches, and Sometimes With Others, and have also drummed for theater and dance productions at the Volksbühne, Berliner Ensemble, Sophiensaele, Radialsystem, and at festivals such as Berlin Atonal, Tanztage, 3hd, and Grauzone. As an instructor, Neidorf has focussed their teaching efforts on women, queer, and non-binary students and has formerly taught at organizations as varied as BIMM University Berlin and Girls Rock Philly. When not drumming, Neidorf co-directs Final Girls Berlin Film Fest, which showcases horror made by women and NB filmmakers.
Yorgos Dimitriadis, born 1964 in Thessaloniki Greece, is an experimental musician, composer performer based in Berlin. Using percussion, microphones, field recordings and minimal electronics his music focuses on real time sonic landscapes, with an emphasis on timbre, sound color and long durations.
Since 2006 he lives in Berlin and appears at festivals and concert series worldwide. He has performed/recorded as a soloist and in collaboration with an array of renowned international artists like Audrey Chen, Paul Dunmall, Tristan Honsinger, Alexander von Schlippenbach, Matthias Bauer, Frank Gratkowski, Lori Freedman, Michel Doneda, Amir ElSaffar, Tobias Delius, Marc Turner, Hilary Jeffery, Robin Hayward, Oguz Büyükberber, Meinrad Kneer, Silke Eberhard and many more.
Current projects include: “14 20 22” (Solo for drums & electronics), Duos with Achim Kaufmann, Andrea Parkins, Michael Thieke, Floros Floridis, DYET with Erato Tzavara (video), Trios GRIX (w/Antonis Anissegos, Floros Floridis), Van Huffel/Kneer/Dimitriadis, GLUE (w/Tom Arthurs, Miles Perkin), KERN (w/Edith Steyer, Matthias Müller), TWIRLS Quartet, FABRIC (w/Frank Paul Schubert, Mike Majkowski) and BeingFive (w/Axel Dörner/ Lori Freedman/ Andrea Parkins/ Christopher Williams).
Festival appearances at Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, Jazzfest Berlin, Jazzdor Berlin/Strasbourg, Suoni Per Il Popolo Montreal, Something Else Festival Hamilton, Enjoy Jazz, Onassis Cultural Center Athens, Nice Jazz Festival, Theatre de la Bastille, Paleo Festival Nyon, Jazz and More Festival, Konstanzer Jazzherbst, Soundance Festival, Berlin Solo Impro, Moving Silence Nicosia and others. Yorgos Dimitriadis can be heard on Relative Pitch, Room40, Jazzwerkstatt, NoBusiness, Creative Sources, FMR, Trouble In The East, Evil Rabbit and Wide Ear record labels.
It’s been far, far too long since Yorgos, Camila and I have hit the stage together. I deeply appreciate the imaginative flow, and the joyous, perpetual-motion energy of this trio, and I look forward to the new things that each artist brings to the group on Saturday.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
Thanks so much to Graham for inviting me to contribute something for his show, and for giving me the opportunity to share some of the noise I’ve made, and the noise that has impressed and moved me recently.
I wish I could say there was a theme beyond selecting music that I had just been listening to, and a selection from some of my more recent recordings. Considering the haphazard way I put the thing together, I’m as surprised as anyone by the way the overall mix flows—from how Catherine takes-off from where Theresa Wong lands; to how Isabel and Sara reassert, reframe and re-grid Yorgos and Camila’s snaps’n’clangs; to the futz, fuzz and buzzes that bridges Steph Richards’ Fullmoon, Juno 3’s Proxemics, and Nick’s Phantom Words.
Enjoy, and please, please check out the music of these artists (including those featured by Graham during the rest of the show)—I think you’ll be inspired.
Track listing: Derealization I (4:07), Derealization II (4:57), Derealization III (3:52), Derealization IV (6:19), Derealization V (5:55), Derealization VI (3:47), Proxemics I (5:05), Proxemics II (3:54), Proxemics III (6:10), Proxemics IV (7:15), Proxemics V (6:10), Proxemics VI: Rumble (5:13). Total duration: 62:44.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
I kept fumbling this one—thus another asterisk [*] on ‘#onetakestudy,’ and thus the title. This one’s very much work-in-progress.
A disprepared ditty bouncing some ideas—well, barely ideas, more fragments of fragments—that emerged from a session with Kaffe Matthews, and a recent gig with Camila Nebbia and Gianluca Elia. It is what it is, but, with a little more work, maybe I can make it into something.
This Thursday (March 6, 2025) at 8:00pm: Camila Nebbia (saxophone, effects and visuals), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Gianluca Elia (electronics) will be performing as part of disfigured rivers vol. 5 in Berlin (contact for venue details). Also performing are Tumulus (amplified saxophone), and Marina Cyrino (flute) and Ayşe Hatipoğlu (’cello).
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
Camila Nebbia (saxophone, effects and visuals), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Gianluca Elia (electronics) as part of disfigured rivers vol. 5. Also performing: Tumulus (amplified saxophone), and Marina Cyrino (flute) and Ayşe Hatipoğlu (’cello). [Details…] * DM for venue details.
Kaffe Matthews (live sampling alchemical electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). Also performing: Matthias Müller (trombone), Matthias Muche (trombone) and Jeb Bishop (trombone). [Facebook event…] [Details…]
Group improvisation as triangulation? Fierce solidarity? Wet, squishy electrochemical processes? And science fiction, and the fictions of science? In Ettore Garzia’s Percorsi Musicali article, Garzia asks me about my thoughts on “art and on the way we should approach the reality of the twenty-first century”:
As for the present-day hellfire 2.0 of the world, whether from strong-men political figures, or the next tech breakthrough, we’re surrounded by promises of simple solutions, and seductive stories of salvation and redemption. In this context, creative peoples, I think, can offer counter-narratives to complicate and refute those easy solutions; to instead help us face the complex, the contradictory, the uncertain and ambiguous.
As for me, empathy, compassion and solidarity remain the reasons I continue to engage with interactive, social music practices and communities. But these practices and communities are flawed and imperfect—they are deeply, deeply human after all—and I think it’s important that we remain aware of the possibility of violence and abuse in our practices, and work to take consent, power, conflict, desire and agency seriously. [Read the rest…]
Proxemics spreads electroacoustic power and a sense of movement, thanks to many elements, the fragmentation of the guitar, the plethora of unnatural sounds brought into play by Thomas and the small and intermittent manipulations of Lara’s sax. I discover a narration inside, but also a void, a melancholic vein. Is that so?
Lara [Jones] and Pat [Thomas] are doing some of the most exciting work in enrolling electronics into improvised performance right now. Their approaches, as different as they are, are informed by present-day technological developments while being irreverent towards those same tech enterprises; they are as avant-garde as they come while deeply engaging with the electronic dance vernacular.
I also hear that messy, contradictory, rolling narrative side to Juno 3, but, more than melancholy, I hear, with Proxemics, something angrier and confrontational—I feel, at times, that the music spits and snarls. [Read the rest…]
Read the rest of the article to catch me talking about how the works of certain writers and filmmakers have affected my work in refracting improvisation through narrative techniques and tropes; the reason for choosing the trio context (and the differences between Eris 136199, Juno 3 and Gonggong 225088); and whether I would ever return to constructing musical automata in this post-ChatGPT condition.
Track listing: Derealization I (4:07), Derealization II (4:57), Derealization III (3:52), Derealization IV (6:19), Derealization V (5:55), Derealization VI (3:47), Proxemics I (5:05), Proxemics II (3:54), Proxemics III (6:10), Proxemics IV (7:15), Proxemics V (6:10), Proxemics VI: Rumble (5:13). Total duration: 62:44.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
Track listing: Ballad of Tensegrity I (≥ 5:12), Ballad of Tensegrity II (2:28), Peculiar Velocities I (3:46), Peculiar Velocities II (3:36), Sleeping Dragon (5:22), D-Loop I (≥ 6:16), D-Loop II (5:13), Polytely I (≥ 5:01), Polytely II: Breakdown (5:33), Anagnorisis I (2:09), Anagnorisis II (2:19). Total duration ≥ 46:54.
Blue-green iridescence
(Crunch and more scatter)
A vacuum of warning
Here be dragons.
It’s been a while since Gonggong played in the trio’s hometown, and it’s been longer since we’ve had an opportunity to really stretch out (we’ll be playing two complete sets at Kühlspot). It’s always a joy to be performing with Camila and Yorgos, and I am super excited to see where the music takes us (and where we take the music). One of the many things I love about this group is how everyone is inviting the others to occupy spaces by actively creating constantly shifting gaps and cracks in the arrangement and moment-by-moment composition.
Track listing: Autopoiesis I (≥ 10:14), Autopoiesis II (≥ 4:29), Niche Shift I (16:09), Niche Shift II (≥ 4:45), Niche Shift III (4:35), Niche Shift IV (≥ 12:52), Autopoiesis III (3:26), Autopoiesis IV (≥ 5:03), Autopoiesis V (≥ 3:17), Autopoiesis VI (3:37). Total duration ≥ 70:14.
