seeking performances (Europe, 2012)

I am seeking performances for the following projects/ensembles in Europe, April (possibly late-March or early-May) 2012 April 26 to May 11, 2012. Interested promoters, venues and sponsors, please get in touch!

In addition, I (Han-earl Park) will be available for performances in solo or (ad-hoc) ensemble contexts.

Contact me for further information, audio recordings, etc. (some material only available to promoters).

CD reviews: io 0.0.1 beta++

io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAMCD 531) CD cover (copyright 2011, Han-earl Park)
io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAMCD 531) © 2011 Han-earl Park

First set of reviews of the CD ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) including Beppe Colli’s take in which the “flesh-and-blood musicians” (Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder) demonstrate “excellent rapport” and “a good dose of telepathy”, while the machine musician (io 0.0.1 beta++) “works as a valuable stimulus for its fellow musicians”:

Closing track here, Return Trajectory is a good for instance of the excellent rapport existing among the aforementioned [“flesh-and-blood”] players, whose parallel traveling seems to suggest a good dose of telepathy—check the final moments, the two winds going towards a note in teleological mode. This is the track that, in my opinion, clearly shows more than a trace of these musicians’ formative influences, with Schroeder’s soprano reminding me of Evan Parker (elsewhere on the album she sounds quite more personal), while Coates’ alto is clearly reminiscent of the zig-zag wondering of Anthony Braxton (an influence that is also quite apparent elsewhere on the album, both on alto and sopranino). Han-earl Park’s guitar sits somewhere halfway between Joe Pass and Derek Bailey, being quite aware of the jazz vocabulary and the art of comping, though of course filtered through a modern sensibility, starting with timbre, but not as ‘indifferent’ to the surrounding as Bailey’s sometimes could be.

Were the album as good as its closing track, well… we’d only have a good album, nothing more. But—surprise!—as per its title, we have an ‘unknown quantity’ called io 0.0.1 beta++: a ‘musical automaton’ created by Han-earl Park whose improvising—so rich when it comes to timbres (which are sometimes more than a bit old-fashioned, a fact that goes well with its bizarre physical aspect, so reminiscent of 50s sci-fi movies), so mysterious when it comes to its decision-making—works as a valuable stimulus for its fellow musicians.

If on an aesthetic plane the main parallel that I can trace (one that I hope can be useful to readers) is with mid-80s Company, here the work as it’s offered to the listener appears to highlight the issue of the decisional process which is at the basis of improvisation when seen as a conscious ‘discipline of choices’. And in the CD liner notes penned by Sara Roberts I seemed to detect more than an echo of those debates which flourish about the famous (?) Turing Test. [Read the rest…] [In Italian…]

— Beppe Colli (CloudsandClocks)

François Couture’s review of the “faux-quartet” with the “créature mécanique” io 0.0.1 beta++ which is “physically present on stage… and it interacts and improvises with the human improvisers”:

Ce quatuor (ou faux-quatuor, à la limite) propose des improvisations libres exigeantes faisant appel à de nombreuses techniques étendues, des pièces aux gestes décomposés, aux timbres déstabilisants, mais à la synergie impressionnante.

This quartet (or faux-quartet, if you prefer) performs demanding free improvisation calling on a range of extended techniques. Pieces of dismantled gestures, destabilizing timbres, and impressive synergy. [Read the rest…]

— François Couture (Monsieur Délire)

And Bruce Lee Gallanter who teases a Turing test around io 0.0.1 beta++:

…More rare is that these three human musicians are improvising with a machine called io 0.0.1 beta…. Io was constructed by Han-earl Park and is an integral part of this quartet…. Io… adds its own diverse yet fractured sounds to the blend. On “Pioneer: Dance” Mr. Coates plays slightly twisted alto sax while io adds similar textural sounds. If I didn’t know better, I would think that this was a successful session of European improv by a quartet of gifted yet thoughtful [human] players who take their time to explore similar textures and terrain together. I am not so sure that machines will ever take the place of human improvisers in the future, however this disc shows that someone is working in the right direction. [Read the rest…]

— Bruce Lee Gallanter (Downtown Music Gallery)

‘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…]

arts council logo

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

thanks: Gargantius Effect +1 | +2 (Northern California, 2011)

Gargantius Effect +1 | +2 (Northern California, 2011): Murray Campbell, NSAA of Electropoetic Coffee, Gargantius Effect, Nevada County, Church of Sonology, KVMR 89.5 FM, Sacramento, Nebraska Mondays at Luna’s Cafe, Studio 1510, Randy McKean and Gino Robair, SF Bay Area

First and foremost, big, big thanks to Murray Campbell and Randy McKean, for organizing the gigs, and for their open-handed generosity and creative intelligence on- and off-stage—the Gargantius Effect! I hope to respond in kind, and to play again soon. (As I said after the first gig, “you guys are good—I just need to accent what’s already happening!”)

Thanks also to the crafty and powerful improvisers Gino Robair and Scott R. Looney for joining the Gargantius Effect, and to Electropoetic Coffee (NSAA, Ross Hammond and Tom Monson) and Aram Shelton / Larry Ochs Quartet for sharing the stage with us. Special thanks to Ross for running/hosting the very special Nebraska Mondays at Luna’s Cafe, to A Word in Edgewise / The Outpost at KVMR 89.5 FM, and to everyone at The Tin House.

Major sonological kudos to Peter Elsdon (a.k.a. sibling vespucci) and Elspeth Murray (a.k.a. sibling boundless) for telematically contributing to the boadcast.

And thanks to Amber for feeding and housing this itinerant musician, Luke for the use of his Blues Junior, Sam for the fried chicken, and the McKean family for the food and conversation.

Last but not least, thanks to all who listened, watched and tuned-in!

tonight: Gargantius Effect +2 (with Gino Robair) at Studio 1510

Gargantius Effect +2

Tonight (August 30, 2011) at 7:30pm: Performance by Gargantius Effect +2 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; Han-earl Park: guitar; with Gino Robair: energized surfaces, voltage made audible), plus Matt Ingalls (clarinet) and Scott R. Looney (hyperpiano), takes place at Studio 1510 (1510 8th Street, Oakland, CA 94607). Door/ticket: $6–10. [Details…]

tonight: Gargantius Effect +1 at Nebraska Mondays

Gargantius Effect +1

Tonight (August 29, 2011) at 7:30pm: Nebraska Mondays presents Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar), plus the Aram Shelton Quartet featuring Larry Ochs, takes place at Luna’s Cafe (1414 16th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814). Door/ticket: $5–10. [Details…]

Next: Performance in Oakland. [Details…]

tonight: The Church of Sonology / Gargantius Effect +1 on KVMR 89.5 FM

Gargantius Effect +1

Tonight (August 28, 2011) at 9:00pm: A Word in Edgewise / The Outpost presents a live broadcast by the Church of Sonology / Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar) on KVMR 89.5 FM (Nevada City, California). [Details…]

Coming up: Performances in Oakland and Sacramento. [Details…]

tonight: Gargantius Effect +1 at The Tin House

Gargantius Effect +1

Tonight (August 25, 2011) at 7:30pm: Performance by Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar), plus Electropoetic Coffee (NSAA: spoken word, voice; Ross Hammond: guitar; and Tom Monson: drums), takes place at The Tin House (11209 McCourtney Road, Grass Valley, CA 95949). Door/ticket: $10. [Details…]

Coming up: Performances in Oakland and Sacramento, and on KVMR 89.5 FM (Nevada City). [Details…]

performance: Ted Byrnes and Han-earl Park at The Battery

This Sunday (August 21, 2011), at 7:00pm: a performance by Ted Byrnes (percussion) and Han-earl Park (guitar) takes place at The Battery Books and Music (1005B Mission Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030). Admission free.

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

performance diary 08-15-11 (Grass Valley, Nevada City, Oakland, Pasadena, Sacramento)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
August 21, 2011 The Battery Books and Music
1005B Mission Street
South Pasadena, CA 91030
7:00pm Performance by Ted Byrnes (percussion) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Admission free.
August 25, 2011 The Tin House
11209 McCourtney Road
Grass Valley, CA 95949
7:30pm Performances by Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar), plus Electropoetic Coffee (NSAA: spoken word, voice; Ross Hammond: guitar; and Tom Monson: drums).
Door/ticket: $10.
[Details…]
[Tin House page…]
August 28, 2011 A Word in Edgewise / The Outpost
KVMR 89.5 FM
Nevada City, California
9:00pm Live broadcast by the Church of Sonology / Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar).
[Details…]
August 29, 2011 Luna’s Cafe
1414 16th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
7:30pm Nebraska Mondays presents Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar), plus the Aram Shelton Quartet featuring Larry Ochs.
Door/ticket: $5–10.
[Details…]
[Nebraska Mondays page…]
August 30, 2011 Studio 1510
1510 8th Street
Oakland, CA 94607
8:00pm Performances by Gargantius Effect +2 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Gino Robair: energized surfaces, voltage made audible), plus Matt Ingalls (clarinet) and Scott R. Looney (hyperpiano).
Door/ticket: $6–10.
[Details…]
[Bay Improvisers page…]
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!
March–May 2012 Europe 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, March 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!

Continue reading “performance diary 08-15-11 (Grass Valley, Nevada City, Oakland, Pasadena, Sacramento)”

performances: Gargantius Effect +1 | +2 (Northern California, 2011)

Gargantius Effect +1 +1

August 2011: Performances in Grass Valley, Nevada City and Sacramento, California by Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar), and in Oakland, California by Gargantius Effect +2 (Campbell; McKean; Park; and Gino Robair: energized surfaces, voltage made audible).

See the performance diary for up-to-date info.

Gargantius Effect +1

The Gargantius Effect is the brainchild of Murray Campbell (violin, oboe and electronics) and Randy McKean (reeds). Like the Stanislaw Lem story of the same name, in which armies of warring soldiers are linked together to form a peaceful, blissfully-aware omni-mind, so, too, these longtime collaborators and Nevada County natives transform the connections and crossfires of the various genres in which they usually find themselves—the Euro-café of Beacoup Chapeaux, Balkan swing of Chickenbonz, chamber jazz of Bristle—into scintillating bits of free improvisation, compositional constructs and mechanized mayhem. They will be joined for these performances by special guest and fellow Sonologist Han-earl Park on guitar. Han has just returned to the States after years of playing and teaching in Europe with the likes of Wadada Leo Smith, Matana Roberts, and Kato Hideki.

about the performers

Murray Campbell has described himself as a Sonologist ever since it was recommended to him as a more respectable occupation than “musician” for the purposes of immigration control. In this capacity he is working with Alex Fiennes on an octaphonic spatialisation system to be un-muted at Dialogues 2007.

He currently resides in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California where he is designing an off-grid solar-powered geodesic wavefront recreation system with the aim of upsetting the bears.

He finds writing about himself in the third person slightly disturbing.

Saxophonist/clarinetist/composer Randy McKean leads or co-leads several bands, including the chamber jazz quartet Bristle, the improv trio Pluck Vim Vigour, the avant-folk duo Sawbones, and the acoustic-electronics duo Zap! He appears regularly with Beacoup Chapeaux, Ludi Hinrichs’ Chickenbonz, Dan Plonsey’s Daniel Popsicle, and Tony Passarell’s Thin Air Orchestra. His string quartet Passages was premiered by the Del Sol String Quartet at the Nevada County Composers Cooperative’s Wet Ink concert in 2009. His CDs include So Dig This Big Crux (Rastascan) and, with the Great Circle Saxophone Quartet, Child King Dictator Fool (New World). McKean studied with trumpeter Paul Smoker and composers Anthony Braxton, David Rosenboom, and Maggi Payne. He has lived and worked in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City, and he and his family have called Grass Valley home since 2002.

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park (박한얼) works within/from/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 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 ongoing 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), and CEAIT Festival (California). His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions and DUNS Limited Edition.

Gino Robair has created music for dance, theater, radio, television, silent film, and gamelan orchestra, and his works have been performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. He was composer in residence with the California Shakespeare Festival for five seasons and served as music director for the CBS animated series The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat. His commercial work includes themes for the MTV and Comedy Central cable networks.

Robair is also one of the “25 innovative percussionists” included in the book Percussion Profiles (SoundWorld, 2001). He has recorded with Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, Terry Riley, Lou Harrison, John Butcher, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Otomo Yoshihide, the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, and Eugene Chadbourne, among many others. In addition, Robair has performed with John Zorn, Nina Hagen, Fred Frith, Eddie Prevost, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Myra Melford, Wadada Leo Smith, and the Club Foot Orchestra.

Robair is a founding member of the Splatter Trio and the heavy-metal band, Pink Mountain. In addition, he runs Rastascan Records, a label devoted to creative music.

As a writer about music technology, Robair has contributed to Mix, Remix, Guitar Player, and Electronic Musician (EM) magazine, where he was an editor for 10 years. He is the author of two books, including The Ultimate Personal Recording Studio (Thompson; 2006).

updates

08–15–11: add updates from Randy (Gargantius Effect blurb, new bio for Randy, and lineup details).

08–19–11: update details on the Oakland gig including the addition of Matt Ingalls.

CD in preparation: Numbers: Richard Barrett + Han-earl Park

CD cover of ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park (copyright 2011, Creative Sources Recordings)
CD cover preview (© 2011 Creative Sources Recordings)

To be released by Creative Sources Recordings in November 2011 2011/2012: ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) with Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park [about this duo…]. More info to follow…

updates

11–15–11: update release schedule [details…].

performance diary 08-06-11 (Grass Valley, Nevada City, Oakland, Sacramento)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
August 25, 2011 The Tin House
11209 McCourtney Road
Grass Valley, CA 95949
7:30pm Performances by Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar), plus Electropoetic Coffee (NSAA: spoken word, voice; Ross Hammond: guitar; and Tom Monson: drums).
Door/ticket: $10.
[Details…]
August 28, 2011 A Word in Edgewise / The Outpost
KVMR 89.5 FM
Nevada City, California
9:00pm Live broadcast by the Church of Sonology / Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar).
[Details…]
August 29, 2011 Luna’s Cafe
1414 16th Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
7:30pm Nebraska Mondays presents Gargantius Effect +1 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; and Han-earl Park: guitar), plus the Aram Shelton Quartet featuring Larry Ochs.
Door/ticket: $5–10.
[Details…]
August 30, 2011 Studio 1510
1510 8th Street
Oakland, CA 94607
8:00pm Performances by Gargantius Effect +2 (Murray Campbell: violin, double reeds; Randy McKean: saxophone, clarinet; Han-earl Park: guitar; and Gino Robair: energized surfaces, voltage made audible), plus Scott R. Looney.
Door/ticket: $6–10.
[Details…]
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!
March–May 2012 Europe 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, March 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!

Continue reading “performance diary 08-06-11 (Grass Valley, Nevada City, Oakland, Sacramento)”