Setlist 3: asking the questions

Setlist 3 zine: honor ash, Laura Cole, Caroline Kraabel, Han-earl Park and Cath Roberts
© 2024 Cath Roberts

I’m very happy to have contributed to Cath RobertsSetlist zine. As Cath announces:

The third installment of my Setlist zine project is out today! For Setlist 3 I asked four of my favourite artists from the improvised/experimental music world to send me a question. As before, the texts are intended as starting points for improvisation, and I love what people came up with! [Read the rest…]

You can get a copy of the zine from Cath’s webshop, or at the launch concert at Cafe OTO next week.

updates

06-24-24: update webshop URL.

Broken Families: Collectivism, Violence, Imagined Utopias and Improvisation (article in The Sampler)

‘Broken Families,’ The Sampler (screenshot)
© 2022 The Sampler

The Sampler has just published Broken Families: Collectivism, Violence, Imagined Utopias and Improvisation,’ my piece about the possibilities of improvisation—sometimes profound, radical and creative, sometimes regressive, hegemonic and abusive—about trust, consent and power, and how the denial of violence may itself be damaging to the project of building better communities and practices:

These are stories about failures. Failures of imagination, of peoples and groups, of how lofty goals can be deceptions. And those deceptions can be limiting, and affect violence. I want to move to a point where we can discuss, critically, both the utopian promises of the practices, processes, tribes and communities surrounding improvisation, and their destructive and violent potentials.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the above stories of improvisation-in-crisis are from events with self-professed lofty goals…. I think, in both cases, those of us involved took community, solidarity, resilience, trust and empathy for granted. It’s not just that the groundwork of trust and safety was never established for the group (although that’s part of it), but that we lazily subscribed to the dogma that the nature of improvisation would itself somehow save us. [Read the rest…]

Thanks to Laonikos Psimikakis-Chalkokondylis at The Sampler for asking me to write the piece. In writing this piece I’m indebted to exchanges and conversations with several improvisers. Big thanks, in particular, to Caroline Kraabel, Corey Mwamba, and Lauren Sarah Hayes.

update

03–19-24: update URL for article as the thesampler.org is being shuttered.

reminder: Mathilde 253 at Freedom of the City, London

Mathilde 253 (Han-earl Park, Charles Hayward and Ian Smith), Cafe OTO, London, April 18, 2010
Mathilde 253 (Cafe OTO, London, April 18, 2010). Photo © 2010 Seán Kelly

Freedom of the City kicks-off this weekend, and on Sunday (May 6, 2012), at 2:00pm Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) will perform in an event that will also include performances by John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra. The event takes place at Cecil Sharp House (2 Regent’s Park Road, Camden, London NW1 7AY, England) [map…]. [More info…]

Tickets: £12 [festival passes and concession details…]

performance diary 04-18-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
May 3, 2012 Performance Space 2
University of Hull: Scarborough Campus
Filey Road
Scarborough, England
7:30pm Performance by Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar).
Tickets: £4 (£3).
[Details…]
[facebook event…]
May 6, 2012 Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent’s Park Road
Camden
London, England
2:00pm Performance by Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) as part of Freedom of the City.Also performing: John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra.[Deatils…]
[FOTC page with ticket info…]
[facebook event…]
May 7, 2012 The Oxford
256 Kentish Town Road
London, England
9:00pm
(doors: 8:30pm)
Performance by Mark Hanslip (saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Phillip Marks (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by Jazz @ The Oxford.
Admission: £5.
[Details…]
[facebook event…]
May 27, 2012 ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
6:00pm Performance by Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Catherine Sikora (saxophones) presented by COMA: Citizens Ontological Music Agenda.Also performing: Jim Goodin, Frederika Kreier, and the Rocco John Iacovone ensemble.Admission: $5.
[ABC No Rio page…]
[facebook event…]
July 24, 2012 The Backroom @ Freddy’s Bar
627 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
8:30pm Performance presented by On The Way Out.
Details to follow…
September 7, 2012 The Stone
16 Avenue C
New York, NY 10009
8:00pm Performance by Tim Perkis (electronics), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Harris Eisenstadt (percussion).
Admission: $10.
late 2012 North America Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) is seeking performance opportunities in North America, late 2012.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
early 2013 Europe Seeking performances in Europe, early 2013 for the cyborg ensemble of interactive, semi-autonomous, technological artifact and machine musician io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself) with human musicians Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophones). Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch! [Detailed proposal…]

Continue reading “performance diary 04-18-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)”

performance diary 04-04-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
April 8, 2012 Douglass Street Music Collective
295 Douglass Street
Gowanus
Brooklyn, NY 11217
8:30pm Gowanus Company IV with Michael Bates, Matt Bauder, Ken Filiano, Brad Henkel, Ingrid Laubrock, Weston Minissali, Han-earl Park, Josh Sinton, Vinnie Sperrazza, Jesse Stacken, Booker Stardrum and “secret, special guests”.
$10 suggested donation.
[Details…]
[DSMC page…]
May 3, 2012 Performance Space 2
University of Hull: Scarborough Campus
Filey Road
Scarborough, England
7:30pm Performance by Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar).
Tickets: £4 (£3).
May 6, 2012 Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent’s Park Road
Camden
London, England
2:00pm Performance by Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) as part of Freedom of the City.Also performing: John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra.[Deatils…]
[FOTC page with ticket info…]
May 7, 2012 The Oxford
256 Kentish Town Road
London, England
9:00pm
(doors: 8:30pm)
Performance by Mark Hanslip (saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Phillip Marks (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by Jazz @ The Oxford.
Admission: £5.
May 27, 2012 ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
7:00pm Performance by Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Catherine Sikora (saxophones) presented by COMA: Citizens Ontological Music Agenda.
Further details to follow…
Admission: $5.
July 24, 2012 The Backroom @ Freddy’s Bar
627 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
8:30pm Performance presented by On The Way Out.
Details to follow…
September 7, 2012 The Stone
16 Avenue C
New York, NY 10009
8:00pm Performance by Tim Perkis (electronics), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Harris Eisenstadt (percussion).
Admission: $10.
late 2012 North America Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) is seeking performance opportunities in North America, late 2012.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
early 2013 Europe Seeking performances in Europe, early 2013 for the cyborg ensemble of interactive, semi-autonomous, technological artifact and machine musician io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself) with human musicians Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophones). Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch! [Detailed proposal…]

Continue reading “performance diary 04-04-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)”

performance diary 03-15-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
April 1, 2012 Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe Street
New York, NY 10002-7351
6:00pm 6:00pm: ‘April Fool’s Day Mystery Set.’
7:00pm: Han-earl Park (guitar).
Free admission.
[Details…]
[DMG page…]
May 3, 2012 Performance Space 2
University of Hull: Scarborough Campus
Filey Road
Scarborough, England
7:30pm (TBC) Performance by Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar).
Tickets: £4 (£3).
May 6, 2012 Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent’s Park Road
Camden
London, England
2:00pm Performance by Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) as part of Freedom of the City.Also performing: John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra.[Deatils…]
[FOTC page with ticket info…]
May 7, 2012 The Oxford
256 Kentish Town Road
London, England
9:00pm
(doors: 8:30pm)
Performance by Mark Hanslip (saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Phillip Marks (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by Jazz @ The Oxford.
Admission: £5.
May 27, 2012 ABC No Rio
156 Rivington Street
New York, NY 10002
7:00pm Performance presented by COMA: Citizens Ontological Music Agenda.
Details to follow…
Admission: $5.
July 24, 2012 The Backroom @ Freddy’s Bar
627 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
8:30pm Performance presented by On The Way Out.
Details to follow…
September 7, 2012 The Stone
16 Avenue C
New York, NY 10009
8:00pm Performance by Tim Perkis (electronics), Harris Eisenstadt (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Admission: $10.
April–May 2012 Europe More dates TBC, but some dates still open: Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn), plus Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) are seeking performance opportunities in Europe, April to May 2012.
In addition, Han-earl Park (guitar) is available for formal or ad-hoc performances.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
late 2012 North America Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) is seeking performance opportunities in North America, late 2012.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!

Continue reading “performance diary 03-15-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)”

performance: Mathilde 253 at Freedom of the City, London

Mathilde 253 (Han-earl Park, Charles Hayward and Ian Smith), Cafe OTO, London, April 18, 2010
Mathilde 253 (Cafe OTO, London, April 18, 2010). Photo © 2010 Seán Kelly

Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 2:00pm: As part of Freedom of the City, Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) performs at Cecil Sharp House (2 Regent’s Park Road, Camden, London NW1 7AY, England) [map…]. Tickets: £12 [festival passes and concession details…]

See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [FOTC page…] [facebook event…]

Also performing on May 6, 2012 at 2:00pm: John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra.

Also performing at FOTC: Guillaume Viltard; Ute Kanngiesser, Grundik Kasyansky, and Roger Turner; Jamie Coleman and John Russell; Jennifer Allum, Ross Lambert and Seijiro Murayama; Weavels (Mick Beck, Chris Cundy and Alex Ward); Sebastian Lexer and Steve Noble; Okkyung Lee Christian Marclay and Phil Minton; Tony Marsh and Mark Sanders; John Edwards, Shabaka Hutchings and Mark Sanders; Common Objects (John Butcher, Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Heledd Francis, Lina Lapelyte, Matthew Lovett and Lee Patterson); Pat Thomas; and Evan Parker and Eddie Prévost.

about Mathilde 253

Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith) was born out of an opportunity to explore the spontaneous mashup of avant-rock, African-American creative musics, European free improvisation and noise. Featuring special guest Lol Coxhill, the ensemble debuted at Cafe OTO (London) in April 2010. In March 2011, with support from Music Network, UCC School of Music, Note Productions, the National Concert Hall and the Cork Opera House, Mathilde 253 toured Ireland with the celebrated composer-improviser Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith.

The ensemble weaves a performance of physical virtuosity and humorous sound poetics; a patchwork of restraint, subtlety and recklessness. A playful collision of personal, social and musical histories, Mathilde 253 is a site where tradition and idiom are not straightjackets nor limitations, but playgrounds for real-time (re)inventions and (re)configurations.

Mathilde 253’s eponymous debut CD (SLAMCD 528) was released by SLAM Productions in January 2011.

“Smith favors long mongrelly growls and scales that ascend and descend in illogical ways, like the stairs in an M C Escher print. Hayward has a very distinct sense of time underneath the freedom…. This is an exciting new venture…. One can reasonably expect unexpected things from Park, who is a delightful shape-shifter and Smith always repays the closest attention, and claims it with sudden open-horn breakouts if the fabric of the music gets too smooth and uninflected. Great stuff….”

— Brian Morton (Point of Departure)

“Ordered and entwining… a tapestry of choice: that of another Mathilde, of a complete beauty.”

— Guillaume Belhomme (Le son du grisli)

Charles Hayward is known as the pioneering drummer with This Heat and Camberwell Now, an ever growing list of solo concerts and CDs (most recent release Abracadabra Information on Locus Solus label), special collaborative performances, and is in Massacre with Bill Laswell and Fred Frith.

Throughout the 90’s up to the present he has initiated a bewildering array of events and performances, including the widely acclaimed series Accidents + Emergencies at the Albany Theatre, Out of Body Orchestra (too much sound, not enough space, not enough time), music made from the sound of the new Laban dance centre being built which was choreographed for the official opening, music for a circus (part of the National Theatre’s ‘Art of Regeneration’ initiative), the full-on installation/performance Anti-Clockwise (with Ashleigh Marsh and David Aylward) for multiple strobes, maze structure of diverse textures, 2 drummers, synthesizers and your nervous system. Recent developements include the Continuity evenings as part of Camberwell Arts.

Committed to song ‘but the shapes have to change,’ his current one-man show is an intoxicating mix of percussive attack, swirling electronics and lyrical fragment collage.

“An unwavering belief in the power of the groove and an uncanny facility for generating one riff after another.”

— The Wire

“Telepathic magic…. Hayward is one of the most life-affirming people who stalks this dark globe.

— The Sound Projector

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) has been working within/from/around traditions of fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, mostly open improvised musics for over fifteen years, sometimes engineering theater, sometimes inventing ritual. He feels the gravitational pull of collaborative, multi-authored contexts, and 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.

He is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, and is involved in collaborations with Bruce Coates, Franziska Schroeder, Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell. He has recently performed with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, Lol Coxhill, Pat Thomas, Paul Dunmall, Mark Sanders, Matana Roberts, Richard Barrett, Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Buckner and Kato Hideki. Festival appearances include Sonorities (Belfast), Sonic Acts (Amsterdam), dialogues festival (Edinburgh), VAIN Live Art (Oxford), and the Center for Experiments in Art, Information and Technology Festival (California). His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions and DUNS Limited Edition.

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

“Park applies every technique to his detuned ax—tapping, sliding, muting, twisting the machine heads. It’s simultaneously disciplined and barbaric.”

— Greg Burk (MetalJazz)

“Pieces of dismantled gestures, destabilizing timbres, and impressive synergy.”

— François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

Ian Smith has been playing improvised music and has performed with Evan Parker, John Stevens, Maggie Nicols, Lol Coxhill, Steve Beresford and Eddie Prévost among others. His own trio, Trian, has played at the 1993 London Experimental Music Festival and the 1992 Soho Jazz Festival. He also participated in a reformation of Cornelius Cardew’s Scratch Orchestra in the ICA in 1994. He has collaborated with composer Roger Doyle, winner of the Bourges International Elecro-Acoustic Music Competition 1997, 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 in November 1997.

He helped to institute the London Improvisers orchestra in 1998 with Steve Beresford and Evan Parker, which continues to play monthly in London and has recently performed at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. He also founded The Gathering with Maggie Nichols.

In 2000 he recorded his second CD as a leader, Daybreak, with Derek Bailey, Veryan Weston, Gail Brand and Oren Marshall. Into the twenty-first century, as well as regularly playing with London improvisers, he has also performed with Greg Tate’s Burnt Sugar Arkestra, guitarists Han-earl Park, Reeves Gabrels, the Poet and Detriot legend John Sinclair, and New York based drummer Harris Eisenstadt.

“Smith’s style has the free-form panache of a Wadada Leo Smith or Joe McPhee, but his experience of other musics is never too far from the surface. Some of his gestures seem to derive from earlier forms of jazz, and there are moments of harmonic directness that you could put chord symbols under. But it has all been thoughtfully moulded into a highly convincing and distinctive language.”

— Philip Clark (JazzReview)

“Smith’s trumpet playing is a particular revelation. His brassy blats and smears play off of the hyperactive spatters of Eisenstadt’s drums. There is a clear jazz edge to his tone, which sounds almost radical these days when many trumpet players in the improv world seem inclined to turn their back on that vocabulary. But he can also dip down to breathy flutters and muted coloristic playing.”

— Michael Rosenstein (Signal to Noise)

‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover (copyright 2010, Han-earl Park)

Mathilde 253 (SLAMCD 528) is available from SLAM Productions [details…]

Performers: Charles Hayward (drums, percussion and melodica), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Ian Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn) plus Lol Coxhill (saxophone).

© 2010 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2010 SLAM Productions.

updates

04–30–12: add the John Edwards/Shabaka Hutchings/Mark Sanders set that stands-in for the Tony Marsh/Mark Sanders duo. I cannot, however, bring myself to remove Mr. Marsh’s name. RIP Tony Marsh.
Add facebook event page.

performance diary 02-09-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
April 1, 2012 Downtown Music Gallery
13 Monroe Street
New York, NY 10002-7351
6:00pm 6:00pm: ‘April Fool’s Day Mystery Set.’
7:00pm: Han-earl Park (guitar).
Free admission.
[Details…]
[DMG page…]
May 3, 2012 Performance Space 2
University of Hull: Scarborough Campus
Filey Road
Scarborough, England
7:30pm (TBC) Performance by Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar).
Tickets: £4 (£3).
May 6, 2012 Cecil Sharp House
2 Regent’s Park Road
Camden
London, England
2:00pm Performance by Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn) as part of Freedom of the City.Also performing: John Edwards, Caroline Kraabel and Lee Patterson; Terry Day; and the London Improvisers Orchestra.[Details…]
[FOTC page with ticket info…]
May 7, 2012 The Oxford
256 Kentish Town Road
London, England
9:00pm
(doors: 8:30pm)
Performance by Mark Hanslip (saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Phillip Marks (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by Jazz @ The Oxford.
Admission: £5.
July 24, 2012 The Backroom @ Freddy’s Bar
627 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
8:30pm Performance presented by On The Way Out.
Details to follow…
April–May 2012 Europe More dates TBC, but some dates still open: Mathilde 253 (Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn), plus Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) are seeking performance opportunities in Europe, April to May 2012.
In addition, Han-earl Park (guitar) is available for formal or ad-hoc performances.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!
late 2012 North America Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) is seeking performance opportunities in North America, November/December 2012.
Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!

Continue reading “performance diary 02-09-12 (Brooklyn, London, New York, Scarborough)”