This Sunday (May 27, 2012), event starting at 6:00pm: a performance by Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Catherine Sikora (saxophones) as part of COMA: Citizens Ontological Music Agenda takes place at ABC No Rio (156 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002) [map/directions…]. Admission is $5. [Details…]
Le son du grisli: Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (Birmingham, 02–15–11)

Guillaume Belhomme (Le son du grisli) reviews the download release by Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders. In it, Belhomme describes a conversation of strength, skill and subtlety:
On sait les liens qui unissent Dunmall et Sanders – ce qu’ils ont pu donner par le passé : de Shooters Hill enregistré en sextette en présence de Paul Rutherford à I Wish You Peace du Moksha Big Band –, c’est donc la présence de Park – que l’on a pu entendre récemment auprès d’un autre britannique de taille, Lol Coxhill, sur Mathilde, et se fit remarquer déjà auprès de Dunmall et Sanders sur un Live at the Glucksmann Gallery – qui intéresse ici. Aux salves imparables du ténor, il oppose des nappes et quelques arpèges accrochés quand Sanders compte les points avec aplomb.
Plus loin, c’est à la cornemuse puis au soprano qu’intervient Dunmall : pour déjouer ses tours (de force et d’adresse), Park choisit une nouvelle fois la subtilité : ses accords étouffés renversent les échanges du trio, transformés bientôt en horizontalité sur laquelle les trois hommes s’entendent alors en apaisés.
[Read the rest…] [Download the recording…]
Thanks to Melanie L. Marshall for help with the French.
Also available for download…
audio recordings: Catherine Sikora, Ian Smith and Han-earl Park (Cork, 04–04–11)
audio recordings: Han-earl Park and Richard Scott (Berlin, 10–23–10)
audio recordings: Han-earl Park plus Marian Murray (Cork, 07–29–10)
audio recordings: Han-earl Park and Franziska Schroeder (Cork, 03–26–09)
thanks: London*2 and Scarborough
Thanks to Trevor Brent and everyone at Freedom of the City for a fantastic and welcoming festival; to Rob Mackay of the University of Hull-Scarborough Campus for being a wonderful, generous host—organizing the performance, housing and feeding the musicians; and to Jazz @ The Oxford for their open mindedness and enthusiasm. Special thanks to John Chantler and Hamish Dunbar at Cafe OTO for helping this itinerant musician step across the border, to John Coxon for the use of his lovely amplifier at FOTC, and to Seán Kelly for evolving into Mathilde 253’s official photographer!
Kudos to all the musicians involved: to Richard Barrett for pushing and pulling the music into new spaces, and for illuminating and exploring the possibilities of real-time interactive music; to Charles Hayward and Ian Smith—two musicians who never miss a beat—for the real rock-out (despite 1/3 of Mathilde 253 begin zombified by a cold); to Dom Lash, Phillip Marks and, in particular, to Mark Hanslip for inviting me to join in their spontaneous inventions and discoveries.
And finally, as always, thanks to all who came to watch/listen!

‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) is available from Creative Sources Recordings [details…]
Performers: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.

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.
performance diary 05-14-12 (Brooklyn, New York)
date | venue | time | details |
---|---|---|---|
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. [Details…] [ABC No Rio page…] [facebook event…] |
June 7, 2012 | Andrew Drury’s home [Contact for location…] Brooklyn, NY |
7:00pm | Soup and Sound House Concert #11 with Andrew Drury (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar), plus Bow Duo (Adrian Knight and Chris Cerrone). Admission: $10. [Details…] |
June 22, 2012 | Dustin Carlson’s home 285 Midwood Street Brooklyn, NY 11225 |
8:00pm (doors: 7:00pm) | Han-earl Park (guitar) and Josh Sinton (saxophone and clarinet), plus Anna Webber and Mariel Berger, and Natura Morta (F.L., Sean Ali and Carlo Costa). [Details…] |
July 24, 2012 | The Backroom @ Freddy’s Bar 627 5th Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11215 |
8:30pm | Performance by Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Catherine Sikora (saxophones) presented by On The Way Out. More info 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 05-14-12 (Brooklyn, New York)”
live reviews: Mathilde 253 at Freedom of the City, London

In his review of this year’s Freedom of the City festival, Tim Owen at Dalston Sound calls Mathilde 253’s set on May 6 “one of the punchiest performances”:
…A trio featuring ex-This Heat drummer Charles Hayward, electric guitarist Han-Earl Park and trumpeter Ian Smith. Hayward was playing at his most impressionistic, Smith’s trumpet correspondingly all smears and blurs, offset by Park’s scrabble of overlapping notes and smears…. Park and Smith were the new discoveries of the festival for me; names to add to the must-see list, for future reference. [Read the rest…]

Meanwhile, Scott McMillan at The Liminal points out the “youthful energy and invention”:
Han Earl-Park’s idiosyncratic guitar style was beguiling, his array of tiny, sharp sounds glinting like fragments of broken glass – the interplay between him and trumpeter Ian Smith was almost telepathic, changing directions as one, and the music coming to two seemingly unplanned and instinctive dead stops. [Read the rest…]
More photographs of FOTC: [Andrew Newcombe’s…] [Scott McMillan’s…]
tonight: Mark Hanslip, Dominic Lash, Phillip Marks and Han-earl Park at The Oxford, London
Tonight (May 7, 2012), at 9:00pm: a performance by Mark Hanslip (saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Phillip Marks (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by Jazz @ The Oxford takes place at The Oxford (256 Kentish Town Road, London, England). Admission: £5.
reminder: Mathilde 253 at Freedom of the City, London

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: Nick Didkovsky, Han-earl Park and Catherine Sikora at ABC No Rio, New York
Sunday, May 27, 2012, 6:00pm: Nick Didkovsky (guitar), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Catherine Sikora (saxophones) perform the penultimate set of COMA: Citizens Ontological Music Agenda. Also performing are Jim Goodin, Frederika Kreier, and the Rocco John Iacovone ensemble. The event starts at 6:00pm, takes place at ABC No Rio (156 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002) [map/directions…], and admission is $5.
See the performance diary for up-to-date info. [ABC No Rio page…] [facebook event…]
reminder: Numbers (Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park), Scarborough

This Thursday (May 3, 2012), at 7:30pm: a performance by Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) takes place at Performance Space 2 (University of Hull: Scarborough Campus, Filey Road, Scarborough, England). Admission is £4 (£3).

‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) is available from Creative Sources Recordings [details…]
Performers: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.
performances: London*2 and Scarborough
Performances coming up, May 2012, in London and Scarborough including a performance by a relatively new project (Numbers with Richard Barrett), by the closest thing to ‘my band’ (Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith), and a new improvisative meet (with Mark Hanslip, Dominic Lash and Phillip Marks). See the performance diary for up-to-date info.
- Scarborough, May 3, 2012: Performance by Numbers (Richard Barrett: electronics; and Han-earl Park: guitar) presented by University of Hull: Scarborough Campus.
[Details…]
[Performance diary entry…] [facebook event…] - London, May 6, 2012: 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.
[Details…]
[Performance diary entry…] [FOTC page with ticket info…] [facebook event…] - London, May 7, 2012: Performance by Mark Hanslip (saxophone), Dominic Lash (double bass), Phillip Marks (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) presented by Jazz @ The Oxford.
[Details…]
[Performance diary entry…] [Jazz @ The Oxford listings page…] [facebook event…]
Hope to see you at these events!
And for those back in New York, later in May I’ll be performing as part of an exciting trio with Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora at ABC No Rio [details…].

‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) is available from Creative Sources Recordings [details…]
Performers: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.

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 facebook event pages.
in preparation: Han-earl Park and Franziska Schroeder (Cork, 03–26–09)
Next download release will be the recording of the March 26, 2009 performance by Han-earl Park (guitar) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophone). A rerelease of a recording originally put out in September 2010, this new version will be available in a variety of formats (including lossless), and available as a ‘name your price’ album.
More info to follow…
Still available…
audio recordings: Catherine Sikora, Ian Smith and Han-earl Park (Cork, 04–04–11)
audio recordings: Paul Dunmall, Han-earl Park and Mark Sanders (Birmingham, 02–15–11)
audio recordings: Han-earl Park and Richard Scott (Berlin, 10–23–10)
audio recordings: Han-earl Park plus Marian Murray (Cork, 07–29–10)
Annea Lockwood on io 0.0.1 beta++

The website of machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++ quotes the composer and explorer of our relationship to everyday (and not so everyday) artifacts, Annea Lockwood’s response to ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531):
The interaction between io and the three other players is really supple… and I like very much the gritty complexity of io’s vocabulary, and the fine sense of shaping, timbrally and in terms of gesture….
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) with Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder is available from SLAM Productions. [More info…] [All reviews…] [Get the CD…]

The construction of io 0.0.1 beta++ has been made possible by the generous support of the Arts Council of Ireland.