CD available: 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

Released as part of SLAM Productions’s August 2011 CD catalog: ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) with Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.

[Slam Productions catalog page…]
[www.io001b.com page…]
[Discography entry…]

description

We watch and listen carefully because we know we’re seeing a kind of manifesto in action. What is an automaton? A sketch, a material characterization of the ideas the inventor and the inventor’s culture have about some aspect of life, and how it could be. io and its kind are alternate beings born of ideas, decisions and choices. It is because io stands alone, an automaton, that the performance recorded on this CD not only is music, but is about music.

Sara Roberts (from the liner notes)

An extraordinary meeting between human and machine improvisers. Featuring the machine musician io 0.0.1 beta++ with guitarist Han-earl Park (Mathilde 253, Wadada Leo Smith) and saxophonists Bruce Coates (Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra, Paul Dunmall) and Franziska Schroeder (FAINT, Evan Parker), the recording is part critique and part playful exploration, both a boundary-breaking demonstration of socio-musical technologies and an ironic sci-fi parody.

Constructed by Han-earl Park, io 0.0.1 beta++ is a modern-day musical automaton. It is not an instrument to be played but a non-human artificial musician that performs alongside its human counterparts. io 0.0.1 beta++ represents a personal-political investigation of technology, interaction, improvisation and musicality. It whimsically evokes a 1950s B-movie robot—seemingly jerry-rigged, constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware, speakers and missile switches—celebrating the material and corporeal.

The performances with this artificial musician highlight society’s entanglement with technology, demonstrate alternative modes of interfacing the musical and the technological, and illuminate the creative and improvisative processes in music. The performance is a radical and playful engagement with powerful and problematic dreams (and nightmares) of the artificial; a dream as old as the anthropology of robots.

With liner notes by the California-based interactive media artist Sara Roberts.

io 0.0.1 beta++ was constructed by Han-earl Park with funding from the Arts Council of Ireland, and with significant input and feedback from Bruce Coates, Franziska Schroeder, Murray Campbell, Sara Roberts and Phil Burk.

We would like to thank John Hough, Melanie L Marshall, Alex Fiennes, Kato Hideki, John Godfrey, Clair McSweeney, Riccardo Vallebella, Paul Everett, Mel Mercier, Kevin Terry and Stephanie Hough.

The recording preceded the performance at Blackrock Castle Observatory which was presented with funding from the Music Network Performance and Touring Award, and support from Blackrock Castle Observatory, the Castle Bar and Trattoria and the UCC Department of Music.

personnel

io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).

track listing

Pioneer: Variance (11:52); Pioneer: Dance (13:13); Ground-Based Telemetry (1:42); Discovery: Intermodulation (9:08); Discovery: Decay (5:08); 4G (0:59); Laplace: Perturbation (10:21); Laplace: Instability (3:08); Return Trajectory (8:24). Total duration: 63:57.

recording details

All music by Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.

Tracks 1–5, 7 and 8 recorded May 25, and track 9 recorded May 26, 2010 at the Ó Riada Hall, UCC Department of Music, Cork. Track 6 recorded August 19 2010 at C-ALTO Labs, Cork.
Recorded and mixed by Han-earl Park.
Design and artwork by Han-earl Park.

© 2011 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.

about the performers

io 0.0.1 beta++ whimsically evokes a 1950s B-movie robot, constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware and missile switches. Its celebrates the material and corporeal; embracing the localized and embodied aspects of sociality, performance and improvisation.

io 0.0.1 beta++ is an interactive, semiautonomous technological artifact that, in partnership with its human associates, performs a deliberately amplified staging of a socio-technical network—a network in which the primary protocol is improvisation. Together the cyborg ensemble explores the performance of identities, hybrids and relationships, and highlights the social agency of artifacts, and the social dimension of improvisation. Engineered by Han-earl Park, io 0.0.1 beta++ is a descendant, and significant re-construction, of his previous machine musicians, and it builds upon the work done with, and address some of the musical and practical problems of, these previous artifacts.

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

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.

A constructor of low- and mid-tech electronic and software devices, and an occasional score-maker, he is interested in partial, and partially frustrating, context-specific artifacts; artifacts that amplify social relations and corporeal identities and agencies, and, in some instances, objects that obscure the location of the author.

He is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, is involved in collaborations with Bruce Coates, Franziska Schroeder, Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell. Recent performances include Mathilde 253 with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith; duo concerts with Paul Dunmall, and with Richard Barrett; trios with Matana Roberts and Mark Sanders, with Catherine Sikora and Ian Smith, and with Jin Sangtae and Jeffrey Weeter; as part of the Evan Parker-led 20-piece improvising ensemble; and the performance of Pauline Oliveros’ ‘Droniphonia’ alongside the composer. Park has also recently performed with Lol Coxhill, Pat Thomas, Corey Mwamba, Mark Trayle, Pedro Rebelo, Alexander Hawkins, Mike Hurley, Chick Lyall, 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.

Bruce Coates has been heavily involved with free jazz, free improvisation and experimental music for more than 15 years. He has collaborated and performed with a long list of some of the best-known names in these areas. He is cofounder of the Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra, has a long standing working relationship in many different guises with guitarist Jamie Smith, a regular trio with David Ryan and bassist John Edwards and runs the monthly Birmingham FrImp night.

Recent collaborations have included regular performances with the saxophonist Paul Dunmall, appearing alongside Dunmall on his DUNS label (the only saxophonist to do so); the Paris-based Blackberry Orchestra led by Peter Corser and involving some of France’s best known improvisers including Denis Charolles and Guillaume Roy; and a CD with the Amsterdam based Mount Fuji Doom Jazz Corporation released on the Ad Noiseam label in 2007. Current ensembles include SCHH with Chris Hobbs, Mike Hurley and Walt Shaw; Magtal with Mark Sanders and Jonny Marks; and the performance art oriented Mutt with Marks and Shaw. His ever-growing eclectic list of collaborators also includes Tony Oxley, Lol Coxhill, Christian Wolff (performing alongside the composer at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London), Hilary Jeffrey, Phil Gibbs, Paul Rogers, Trevor Lines, John Coxon, Misterlee, Bong Ra, Simon Picard, Tony Bianco, Han-earl Park, Tony and Miles Levin and Tony Marsh.

Franziska Schroeder is a saxophonist and theorist. She received her saxophone training in Berlin and Australia and later from Marie-Bernadette Charrier / Conservatoire Supérieure in Bordeaux.

With her trio FAINT Schroeder released a CD of improvised and electroacoustic music in 2007 with Pedro Rebelo (piano and instrumental parasites) and Steven Davis (drums), and a second CD, both on the creative source label. Schroeder has performed with many international musicians including Pauline Oliveros, Stelarc, the Avatar Orchestra, Chris Brown, John Kenny, Tom Arthurs, Nuno Rebelo and Evan Parker.

She holds a PhD from the University of Edinburgh and has written for many international journals, including Leonardo, Organised Sound, Performance Research, Cambridge Publishing and Routledge. Her book “Re-situating Performance Within The Threshold: Performance practice understood through theories of embodiment” appeared in 2009. Schroeder also published a book on user-generated content for Cambridge Publishing Scholars in 2009.

Schroeder is on the development committee of NMSAT (Networked Music & SoundArt Timeline), and has been on the programming committee for the DRHA (Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts) conference since 2009. She was the Program Chair for the DRHA 2010. Schroeder has been an AHRC Research Fellow and is now a Lecturer/RCUK Fellow at the School of Music and Sonic Arts in Belfast, where she coaches 3rd year recitalists and MA performance students.

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.

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

Also available from SLAM Productions: Mathilde 253 (SLAMCD 528) [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.

CD available: Mathilde 253

‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover
‘Mathilde 253’ (SLAMCD 528) CD cover

Released as part of SLAM Productions’s January 2011 CD catalog: Mathilde 253’s eponymous debut CD (SLAMCD 528).

[Get the CD via the discography entry…]
[Slam Productions catalog page…]
[Read the reviews…]

teaser (photomontage by Jenny Gallego)

description

Charles Hayward (drums, percussion and melodica), Han-earl Park (guitar), Ian Smith (trumpet and flugelhorn), Lol Coxhill (saxophone) tracks 6 and 7. Mathilde 253 is the real-time musical meeting between legendary avant-rock drummer Charles Hayward (This Heat, Massacre), “careful and crafty” guitarist Han-earl Park (Paul Dunmall, Kato Hideki), and mainstay of the London improvised music scene Ian Smith (Derek Bailey, London Improvisers’ Orchestra). Mathilde 253 was born out of an opportunity to explore the spontaneous mashup of avant-rock, African-American creative musics, European free improvisation and noise. Joined by the veteran iconoclastic saxophonist Lol Coxhill, this recording documents the weaving of physical virtuosity and humorous sound poetics, a patchwork of restraint, subtlety and recklessness.

Recorded live at Cafe OTO, London on April 18 2010. Recorded and mixed by Chris Trent. Mastered by Han-earl Park.

Design and artwork by Han-earl Park. Photographs by Seán Kelly.

Thanks to Hamish Dunbar and Keiko Yamamoto at Cafe OTO, Chris Trent, Alex Fiennes, Kato Hideki, Han-ter Park, Melanie L Marshall and Jeffrey Weeter.

All music by Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith, except tracks 6–7 by Lol Coxhill, Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith.

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

personnel

Mathilde 253: Charles Hayward (drums, percussion, melodica), Han-earl Park (guitar) and Ian Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn), plus Lol Coxhill (saxophone; tracks 6 and 7).

track listing

Kalimantan (18:29), Similkameen (8:22), Ishikari (10:09), Jixi (8:09), Matanuska (6:52), Aachen (11:42), Oaxaca (10:52). Total duration: 74:37.

thanks: Kato-O’Looney-Park

poster (click to download PDF…)
poster (click to download PDF…)

Just a quick note of thanks to Kato Hideki and Katie O’Looney for playing, and thanks to everyone for coming to listen on Monday [Details…]. It was a pleasure and a privilege. Thanks also to Kevin Terry for manning the door, and working the monetary arithmetic.

There’s a recording which, who knows, may someday see the light of day 😉

performance diary 09-06-09

upcoming performances
date venue time details
September 7th 2009 The Roundy
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (doors: 8:45pm) Performance by Kato Hideki (bass), Katie O’Looney (drums) and Han-earl Park.
Admission: €12 (€6).
[Details…]
[Poster…]
October 12th 2009 The Roundy
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (doors: 8:45pm) Stet Lab returns! With Marian Murray (violin), Tony O’Connor (bass) and Han-earl Park (guitar), plus Piaras Hoban (computer) and David O’Regan (tuba)
Admission: €10 (€5).
[Details…]
November 6th 2009 Aula Maxima (TBC)
UCC
Cork, Ireland
1:00pm Performance by Paul Dunmall (bagpipes) and Han-earl Park (guitar) as part of the UCC concert series. Admission free.
More details to follow…
November 10th 2009 The Roundy
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (doors: 8:45pm) Stet Lab’s third birthday! Featuring Filario Farinoppo: Dario Fariello (saxophones, viola, electronics and little instruments), Filippo Giuffrè (guitar and electronics) and Antonio D’Intino (bass, electronics and little instruments).
Admission: €10 (€5).
[Details…]
May 12th 2010 (TBC) Blackrock Castle Observatory
Cork, Ireland
TBC Debut performance by io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself) with Bruce Coates (saxophones), Franziska Schroeder (saxophones) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
We are seeking further funding and performance opportunities. If you would like to help, please get in touch!
2010 (TBC) Venue TBC TBC Performance by Han-earl Park (guitar), Mark Sanders (drums) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophones).
Details to follow…
Interested promoters and venues, please get in touch!
2010 (TBC) Sonic Arts Research Centre
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, N. Ireland
n/a Recording session by Peter Elsdon (piano), Han-earl Park (guitar), Mark Sanders (drums) and Franziska Schroeder (saxophones).
Details to follow…
We are seeking sponsorship of this project. If you would like to help, please get in touch!

Continue reading “performance diary 09-06-09”

reminder: Kato-O’Looney-Park

poster (click to download PDF…)
poster (click to download PDF…)

This Monday (September 7th 2009), at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45pm): an improvised music event with Kato Hideki (bass), Katie O’Looney (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) at The Roundy (Castle Street, Cork, Ireland). Hope to see y’all there! [Details…]

…And a note of thanks to Avant Music News for taking note of us.

performance diary 08-27-09

upcoming performances
date venue time details
September 7th 2009 The Roundy
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (doors: 8:45pm) Performance by Kato Hideki (bass), Katie O’Looney (drums) and Han-earl Park.
Admission: €12 (€6).
[Details…]
[Poster (PDF)…]
October 12th 2009 The Roundy
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (doors: 8:45pm) Stet Lab returns!
Admission: €10 (€5).
[Details…]
November 10th 2009 The Roundy
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (doors: 8:45pm) Featuring Filario Farinoppo: Dario Fariello (saxophones, viola, electronics and little instruments), Filippo Giuffrè (guitar and electronics) and Antonio D’Intino (bass, electronics and little instruments).
Admission: €10 (€5).
[Details…]
2009/2010 (TBC) Venue TBC TBC Performance by Paul Dunmall (bagpipes) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Details to follow…
Interested promoters and venues, please get in touch!
May 12th 2010 (TBC) Blackrock Castle Observatory
Cork, Ireland
TBC Debut performance by io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself) with Bruce Coates (saxophones), Franziska Schroeder (saxophones) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
We are seeking further funding and performance opportunities. Interested bodies, please get in touch!
2010 (TBC) Venue TBC TBC Performance by Han-earl Park (guitar) and Mark Sanders (drums), Franziska Schroeder (saxophones).
Details to follow…
Interested promoters and venues, please get in touch!

Continue reading “performance diary 08-27-09”

performances: Kato-O’Looney-Park

On Monday, September 7th 2009, at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45pm): an improvised music event with Kato Hideki (bass), Katie O’Looney (drums) and Han-earl Park (guitar) at The Roundy (Castle Street, Cork, Ireland). Admission is €12 (€6 concessions) at the door.

poster (click to download PDF…)
poster (click to download PDF…)

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

about the performers

Kato HidekiKato Hideki (Kato: family name; Hideki: given) is a Japanese-born composer / bassist / multi-instrumentalist, who lives in NYC. He is the co-founder of Death Ambient with Ikue Mori & Fred Frith. His other groups as a leader are: Green Zone with Otomo Yoshihide and Uemura Masahiro; OMNI with Nakamura Toshimaru and Akiyama Tetsuji. His compositions include: solo piece ‘Turbulent Zone’ for electric bass with prime number tuning; ‘Tremolo of Joy’ for his band with Charles Burnham, Briggan Krauss, Ed Tomney and Calvin Weston. Besides his own projects, Kato collaborates with Nicolas Collins, James Fei, Akamatsu Masayuki and Ursula Scherrer. As a bassist, he has worked with Eyvind Kang, Zeena Parkins, Marc Ribot, Michael Schumacher, John Zorn and among many others. He is also a member of analog synthesizer collective, Analogos at Diapason Gallery.

Katie O’LooneyKatie O’Looney was born in Killarney, County Kerry, and raised in NY State. She received a degree in art from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York. She first took up the drums in 1969, and performed, recorded and toured in the USA, Japan and throughout Europe with various groups, and as a soloist, since the early 1980’s. She has played with Elliott Sharp’s Carbon, Details at Eleven, Bite Like a Kitty, Better than Death, Steppin Razor, Zar, Raeo, No Safety and Dustbreeders. She has also improvised tours with Tenko, Zeena Parkins, Elliott Sharp, solos with triggered drums and electronics with a 16 mm film of Rose Lowder, and sound for Qui Pro Quo by Rose Lowder. Katie has worked with various dancers, performance artists and theatre projects with sound and lighting design. She is a painter, and a specialist decorative painter, and has worked on a number of restoration projects. In 2002 she released a solo CD, Roundtrip.

Han-earl ParkBased in Cork, the Korean-American guitarist Han-earl Park works from / within / around the traditions of idiom-agnostic, experimental improvised musics, sometimes engineering theater, sometimes inventing ritual. He is involved in ongoing collaborations with Bruce Coates, and with Franziska Schroeder, fifteen year long associations with Alex Fiennes and Murray Campbell, and has performed with Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith, George E. Lewis, J. D. Parran, Paul Dunmall, Pauline Oliveros, Mark Sanders, Chick Lyall, Jan Langedijk, Stu Ritchie, Koen Nutters, Pedro Rebelo, Elspeth Murray, Mark Trayle and Hannes Raffaseder. He is also the constructor of io 0.0.1 beta, an interactive musical artifact, and cofounder of the Church of Sonology.

performance diary 07-01-09

upcoming performances
date venue time details
September 7th 2009 The Roundy
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (doors: 8:45pm) Performance by Kato Hideki (bass), Katie O’Looney (drums) and Han-earl Park.
Admission: €12 (€6).
[Details…]
[Poster (PDF)…]
October 12th 2009 (TBC) The Roundy (TBC)
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland
9:00pm (TBC) Stet Lab returns!
Details to follow…
2009/2010 (TBC) Venue TBC TBC Performance by Paul Dunmall (bagpipes) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Details to follow…
Interested promoters and venues, please get in touch!
February 10th 2010
Postponed!
Blackrock Castle Observatory
Cork, Ireland
TBC Debut performance by io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself) with Bruce Coates (saxophones), Franziska Schroeder (saxophones) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
We are seeking further funding and performance opportunities. Interested bodies, please get in touch!

Continue reading “performance diary 07-01-09”

performance diary 06-20-09

upcoming performances
date venue time details
September 2009 (TBC) Venue TBC
Cork, Ireland
TBC Performance by Kato Hideki (bass), Katie O’Looney (drums) and Han-earl Park.
Details to follow…
Interested promoters and venues, please get in touch!
October 2009 (TBC) Venue TBC
Cork, Ireland
TBC Stet Lab returns!
Details to follow…
2009/2010 (TBC) Venue TBC TBC Performance by Paul Dunmall (bagpipes) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Details to follow…
Interested promoters and venues, please get in touch!
February 10th 2010 (TBC) Blackrock Castle Observatory
Cork, Ireland
TBC Debut performance by io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself) with Bruce Coates (saxophones), Franziska Schroeder (saxophones) and Han-earl Park (guitar).
Details to follow…

Continue reading “performance diary 06-20-09”