tonight: Eris 136199 at Jazz North East, Newcastle

Eris 136199, Newcastle
© 2017 Han-earl Park.

Tonight (November 5, 2017), at 8:00pm: Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar), presented by Jazz North East, plays the final date of its tour at The Bridge Hotel (Castle Square, Newcastle NE1 1RQ). Tickets: £8 (£6). [Get tickets…]

by Han-earl Park, Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora

CD cover of ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) with Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton (artwork copyright 2015, Han-earl Park)

Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]

Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet).

© 2015 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.

tonight: Eris 136199 at OUT FRONT! Derby

Eris 136199, Derby
© 2017 Han-earl Park.

Tonight (November 4, 2017), at 6:00pm: Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar), presented by OUT FRONT!, perform at Blessington Carriage (11 Chapel Street, Derby DE1 3GU).

And finally…

Tomorrow night (November 5): Eris 136199 plays the final date in this tour in Newcastle, England. [Details…]

tonight: Eris 136199 at Xposed Club, Cheltenham

Eris 136199, Cheltenham
© 2017 Han-earl Park.

Tonight (November 3, 2017), at 8:00pm: Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar), presented by Xposed Club, perform at Francis Close Hall (University of Gloucestershire, Swindon Road, Cheltenham GL50 4AZ). Admission: £7 (£3).

Eris 136199 is also performing…

Tomorrow (November 4): Derby, England; and November 5: Newcastle, England. [Details…]

tonight: Eris 136199 at Jazz Club Loco, Copenhagen

Eris 136199, Copenhagen
© 2017 Han-earl Park.

Tonight (November 2, 2017), at 8:00pm: Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar), presented by Jazz Club Loco and Jvtlandt, perform at Bryggekælderen (Njalsgade 15, 2300 Copenhagen S). Admission: Kr. 60.

Eris 136199 is also performing…

Tomorrow (November 3): Cheltenham, England; November 4: Derby, England; and November 5: Newcastle, England. [Details…]

reminder: Eris 136199 at MS Stubnitz, Hamburg

Eris 136199, Hamburg
© 2017 Han-earl Park.

This Wednesday (November 1, 2017), at 8:30pm (doors: 8:00pm): Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar), presented with funding from Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg, perform at MS Stubnitz (Kirchenpauerkai 29, 20457 Hamburg). Tickets: €12 (€6 students), €8 advance. [Get tickets…]

First date of Eris’ European mini tour! I’m excited, and you should be too. What can you look forward to? This is what Nick says:

I have never been able to detect any implicit rules, favorite things to do, implied directions, or aesthetic goals in this band. People start playing, they stop, start again, stop again… insofar as music is a temporal art, that’s pretty elemental behavior, and is about the only binding agreement in Eris 136199 that I have detected. Which I recognize is barely a statement, as the passage of time is inviolable in all contexts, be they free or restrictive. Physics doesn’t care. But Eris cares a lot. Time is a precious thing to Han and Catherine, and the action of scattering sound onto it is a sacred and mysterious ritual. [Read the rest…]

Eris 136199 is also performing…

November 2: Copenhagen, Denmark; November 3: Cheltenham, England; November 4: Derby, England; and November 5: Newcastle, England. [Details…]

by Han-earl Park, Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora

CD cover of ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) with Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton (artwork copyright 2015, Han-earl Park)

Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]

Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet).

© 2015 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.

Eris 136199 (Hamburg, Copenhagen, Cheltenham, Derby and Newcastle, November 2017)

November 2017: Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) will perform in Hamburg, Copenhagen, Cheltenham, Derby and Newcastle (see the performance diary for up-to-date info).

As I’ve said: “Eris 136199 may be the closest to how I think music should sound like, or how I would like to imagine a music. Musicality and interactivity are tightly knotted together as we improvise, create, and explore. Making improvised music is a uniquely rewarding artistic struggle that brings exceptional joy to musicians and audience alike, who join in making and watching unpredictable events unfold…!

“Interaction with, and within, Eris is an always awesome experience; unique in bringing so many strands of the musically possible together. I’m very excited to be playing again with two of my favorite musicians, avant-rock legend Nick Didkovsky and the powerfully creative improviser Catherine Sikora, and finally bringing this trio to European audiences.” Hope to see y’all at these events!

Details

Forged in the avant-what of Downtown New York City, Eris 136199 is coming to Europe this fall, performing in Hamburg (1 November), Copenhagen (2), Cheltenham (3), Derby (4) and Newcastle (5).

A meeting between intrepid guitarists and cyborg interactionist Han-earl Park, legendary avant-metal composer-guitarist Nick Didkovsky, and the muscular, impeccably melodic saxophonist Catherine Sikora, Eris 136199 has been described as “a beautiful noise” (KFJC 89.7 FM), and “ein glorioser Bastard aus Noise und süßer Träumerei” (Bad Alchemy).

This tour has been made possible through the support from Jazz North East, Jvtlandt, Jazz Club Loco, OUT FRONT!, Xposed Club, Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg, and MS Stubnitz, and the awe-inspiring generosity of the backers of our Kickstarter project:

Cath Roberts, Franziska Schroeder, Owen Green, Han-Ter Park, Richard Hollis, Tom Duff, Jan Langedijk, Thomas Buckner, Liam Nagle, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Randy McKean, Anton Hunter, Marte van der Loop, Ian Boswell, Nancy Meli Walker, David M. Morris, Nicholas Croft, Eva Zelig, Bart Mallio, Jeremy Clarke, Martin Pyne, Josh Sinton, Moon Soon Han, Eun-He Moon, Yoon-Mi Cho, 고항심, Katie O’Looney, Jamie Smith, Phil Burk, Andrea Wolper, Kyoko Kitamura, DIDI, Caroline Pugh, Edozie Edoga, Yu Seon Hee, Danny McCarthy, Richard Barrett, Leejiyoung, Ed Bennett, Young-Shin Park, Ga Hyun Noh, Inkyung Kim, Keith Stonell, Peter O’Doherty, Viv Corringham, Korhan Erel, Tony O’Connor, Vikram Kapur and Maneesha Chawala, and our anonymous backers.

About Eris 136199

Eris 136199: Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora and Nick Didkovsky (Douglass Street Music Collective, Brooklyn, June 5, 2013). Photo copyright 2013 Scott Friedlander.
Photo © 2013 Scott Friedlander.

Impressive in scale, overwhelming in execution, it’s a cyclic frenzy of fragmented sounds without an ounce of entropy, yet somehow with a sense of clear movement and progression.

— Dave Foxall (a Jazz Noise)

‘Free’ is a barely sufficient to describe this approach, as the trios explore various angular constructs and effects. The vocabulary of sounds here is as broad as it is unconventional.

— Mike Borella (Avant Music News)

Atmospheric as to become almost frightening.

— Ken Waxman (The New York City Jazz Record)

Eris 136199 plays on the crossroads of noise, melody, rhythm, space, density, contrast, synchronicity, asymmetry, serendipity and contradiction. Eris 136199 is the corporeal, cyborg virtuosity of constructor and guitarist Han-earl Park; the noisy, unruly complexity of composer, computer artist and guitarist Nick Didkovsky; and the no-nonsense melodic logic of composer and saxophonist Catherine Sikora.

Described by Brian Morton as “a musical philosopher… a delightful shape-shifter”, Han-earl Park is drawn to real-time cyborg configurations in which artifacts and bodies collide. He has performed with some of the finest practitioners of improvised music, leads Sirene 1009 with Dominic Lash, Mark Sanders and Caroline Pugh, and is part of Numbers with Richard Barrett.

A composer who enjoys blurry boundaries, Nick Didkovsky founded the avant-rock big band Doctor Nerve, and is a member of Swim This with Gerry Hemingway and Michael Lytle. He is a pioneer of small-systems computer music, and has composed music for ensembles including Bang On A Can All Stars, ETHEL, and the Meridian Arts Ensemble.

Catherine Sikora is “a free-blowing player’s player with a spectacular harmonic imagination and an evolved understanding of the tonal palette of the saxophone” (Chris Elliot, Seacoast Online). She has a long-standing duo project with Eric Mingus, and has performed as part of ensembles led by Elliott Sharp, François Grillot, Ross Hammond, and Ursel Schlicht.

Together, Park, Didkovsky and Sikora forge an improvisative space where melody can be melody, noise can be noise, meter can be meter, metal becomes metal, bluegrass turns to bluegrass, jazz transforms into jazz, all there, all necessary without imploding under idiomatic pressures.

about the performers

Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park has been crossing borders and performing fuzzily idiomatic, on occasion experimental, always traditional, open improvised musics for twenty years. He has performed in clubs, theaters, art galleries, concert halls, and (ad-hoc) alternative spaces across Europe and the USA.

Ensembles include Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, Eris 136199 with Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora, and Numbers with Richard Barrett. Park is the constructor of the machine improviser io 0.0.1 beta++, and instigator of Metis 9, a playbook of improvisative tactics. He has performed with Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Dunmall, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, Mark Sanders, Josh Sinton, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Gino Robair, Tim Perkis, Andrew Drury, Pat Thomas and Franziska Schroeder. His recordings have been released by labels including Slam Productions, Creative Sources and DUNS Limited Edition.

“Guitarist Han-earl Park is a musical philosopher…. Expect unexpected things from Park, who is a delightful shape-shifter….”

— Brian Morton (Point of Departure)

“Though short, percussive, hard-to-notate sounds dominate Han-earl Park’s sound, he does utilize the totality of the guitar’s sonorities—just not in the proportions demanded by the nostalgic (retrospective, reactionary, etc.) owners of major media….”

— Stanley Zappa (The New York City Jazz Record)

Nick Didkovsky is a guitarist, composer, and computer music programmer. His non-didactic approach to combining human and machine creativity is a unique musical fingerprint. Didkovsky has composed new music for Kathleen Supove, Ethel, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Meridian Arts Ensemble, New Century Players, ARTE Quartett, his own bands Doctor Nerve, Vomit Fist, Häßliche Luftmasken, and others. His compositions and guitar performances appear on more than 50 records.

For over 30 years, Doctor Nerve has fueled Didkovsky’s intricate compositions with the energy of rock, often challenging the boundaries between heavy metal, contemporary music, and improvisation. Doctor Nerve has released nine albums of more than 50 of his compositions. The band has performed at numerous festivals including FIMAV, the Moers Festival, Musique Action, Creative Time, MIMI Festival, and ‘Whitney Live’ at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

As a guitarist and composer, Didkovsky was a member of the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, contributing twelve compositions to its repertoire. Didkovsky’s electric guitar compositions continue to be performed by newer ensembles such as Dither Quartet, E-Werk, and Fracture Guitar Quartet, and by soloists such as Kevin Gallagher, Marco Cappelli, and Wiek Hijmans. As a soloist, he has performed at numerous events such as Bang On A Can festival, Guitarévolutions in Montreal, New Ballet festival at the Miller Theatre, and John Zorn’s East Asian Bar Bands. His 2015 Residency at The Stone in NYC resulted in numerous premiere performances of new works.

Collaborating with computer music pioneer Phil Burk, Didkovsky began developing Java Music Specification Language in 1997.

“Musicians (and listeners) who approach Didkovsky’s work find that part of the challenge derives from his mastery of unpredictability.”

— Linda Leseman (The Village Voice)

Saxophonist, improviser and composer Catherine Sikora was born and raised in West Cork, Ireland. Self taught to begin with, she moved to New York City to study and play with great improvisers.

Sikora works in a broad range of settings, from highly complex composed music, to folk songs, to free improvisation. She works regularly with Eric Mingus, Enrique Haneine, Brian Chase, Han-earl Park, Stanley Zappa, Christopher Culpo and Ross Hammond, as well as actively pursuing solo performance.

In the past few years Sikora has toured in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia. She was a featured soloist in Eric Mingus’ radical reimagining of Tommy by the Who (Adelaide Festival 2015), and was artist in residence at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris for the fall of 2014, working on a project inspired by stories from her female ancestors. Catherine’s first solo album ‘Jersey’ was released on Relative Pitch Records in July 2016.

Current working projects include Clockwork Mercury (duo with Eric Mingus) and an improvising duo with drummer Brian Chase; Sikora’s first solo recording will be released in fall 2015.

“Sikora has invited us into her musical world, and like the neighbor from Queens, it is our good fortune to be in its midsts.”

— Paul Acquaro (Free Jazz)

“There is almost always one enigmatic person at every gathering…. Inevitably, there is an expert storyteller there as well. With any luck, it happens to be the same person. These rare folk have the ability to spin a tale you have possibly heard before but can retell it with such clarity that you are captivated or better yet hypnotized. They can give you a new understanding of something you thought you already knew. This is a beautiful power and an ability that is rare to possess. Catherine Sikora is such a person/player.”

— Philip Coombs (Free Jazz)

by Han-earl Park, Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora

CD cover of ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) with Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton (artwork copyright 2015, Han-earl Park)

Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]

Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet).

© 2015 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.

performance diary 10-14-17 (Cheltenham, Copenhagen, Derby, Hamburg, Munich, Newcastle)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
November 1, 2017 MS Stubnitz
Kirchenpauerkai 29, 20457 Hamburg, Germany
8:30pm (doors: 8:00pm) Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar). Presented with funding from Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg.
Tickets: €12 (€6 students), €8 advance [get tickets…]
[Details…]
[Stubnitz page…] [VAMH page…]
November 2, 2017 Bryggekælderen
Njalsgade 15
2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
8:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by Jazz Club Loco and Jvtlandt. Also performing: Sonja LaBianca (saxophone) and Heine Thorhauge Mathiasen (guitar). Admission: Kr. 60.
[Details…]
[Loco page…]
November 3, 2017 Francis Close Hall
University of Gloucestershire
Swindon Road
Cheltenham GL50 4AZ
England
8:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by Xposed Club. Also performing: Eugene Chadbourne. Admission: £7 (£3).
[Details…]
[Xposed page…]
November 4, 2017 Blessington Carriage
11 Chapel Street
Derby DE1 3GU
England
6:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by OUT FRONT!
[Details…]
November 5, 2017 The Bridge Hotel
Castle Square
Newcastle NE1 1RQ
England
8:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by Jazz North East. Also performing: Inclusion Principle (Herve Perez and Martin Archer: woodwind, electronics; and Peter Fairclough: percussion). Tickets: £8 (£6) [get tickets…]
[Details…]
[Jazz North East page…]
November 30, 2017 KlangBüro
Ruffinihaus
Sendlingerstrasse 1
80331 Munich
Germany
7:30pm Han-earl Park (guitar). Also performing: Norbert Stammberger (saxophone). [Details…] [Halle 6 page…]

Continue reading “performance diary 10-14-17 (Cheltenham, Copenhagen, Derby, Hamburg, Munich, Newcastle)”

Eris 136199 will be on tour and on record thanks to you!

€2,184 pledged. 109% funded. 51 backers.

You did it!

Thank you to all our backers. You have been above and beyond awesome. Pour yourself something nice; you deserve it.

Cheers!

Han-earl.

P.S. News and details on the tour and recording coming up soon! To keep up-to-date, keep an eye on busterandfriends.com, or subscribe to my newsletter.

Congratulations! You did it! (Eris 136199: Kickstarter)

€2,073 pledged. 103% funded. 47 backers. 3 days to go

To our amazing, wonderful, awe-inspiring backers,

To the seekers of the mellifluous in cacophony, the rhythm in chaos,

To those who believed that this discordant trio could,

To you,

Thank you so much. To say I am overwhelmed feels almost an understatement. I am so excited to be hitting the road this November, and to be bringing to you our music.

Thank you so much. You have been awesome.

Yours faithfully,

Han-earl.

money raised above our goal

For those who have yet to back the campaign, or to select a reward, you still have three days to do so. As stated on the Kickstarter page:

Anything raised beyond our goal will go towards the design, packaging and manufacturing costs of the CD.

The first €350 over our goal will go towards paying for the design, packaging and manufacturing costs of the CD. Should we raise more than that, the next €150 will pay for a second day of recording for our album.

So you still have time to join us. Plus there are cool rewards (starting at the price of a coffee and muffin) still to be had such as exclusive recordings, super-rare items, and not-available-from-anywhere-else hand-made items. Select your reward, and back this project: [Kickstarter page…]

Eris 136199: tour and recording (Kickstarter)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hanearlpark/eris-136199-tour-recording-glorious-noise-and-swee

Eris 136199 is reuniting for a European tour complete with a second album. All we need is YOU.”

The two week Kickstarter campaign starts today!

Eris 136199 may be the closest to how I think music should sound like, or how I would like to imagine a music. Musicality and interactivity are tightly knotted together as we improvise, create, and explore. Making improvised music is a uniquely rewarding artistic struggle that brings exceptional joy to musicians and audience alike, who join in making and watching unpredictable events unfold! Today we are asking for you to support this struggle from a more pragmatic (i.e. financial) angle, as we embark on our European tour and the recording of our second album. Improvised music is a decidedly non-commercial endeavor that enriches those who step into it. Please consider helping us this effort to bring vital music to a wider range of audiences!”

Audio buffer, plectra, patch cables, and CDs
CD covers © 2017, 2015 and 2010 Han-earl Park.

“We are a small, mobile trio that doesn’t travel with a ton of gear. As efficient as this is, we will incur hard expenses that will exceed performance income: plane tickets, train travel, local travel, and lodging all add up pretty quick. The venues and promoters are being as righteous as they can be with their artist fees, but the hard truth is that without your help, we’ll be in the red. We’re offering real cool rewards (including a new album), so please check out the various rewards and see where you might fit in to help us!

“Interaction with, and within, Eris is an always awesome experience; unique in bringing so many strands of the musically possible together. I’m very excited to be playing again with two of my favorite musicians, avant-rock legend Nick Didkovsky and the powerfully creative improviser Catherine Sikora, and finally bringing this trio to European audiences.”

Read the rest, and select your reward: [Kickstarter page…]

Eris 136199: Kickstarter launching soon!

Get ready to support our European tour! Eris 136199 is taking improvised music on the road, and on record!

To be notified when the Kickstarter campaign goes live, sign up to my newsletter:

Signup to the newsletter [details…].

[About the newsletter…]

by Han-earl Park, Nick Didkovsky and Catherine Sikora

CD cover of ‘Anomic Aphasia’ (SLAMCD 559) with Han-earl Park, Catherine Sikora, Nick Didkovsky and Josh Sinton (artwork copyright 2015, Han-earl Park)

Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]

Performers: Han-earl Park (guitar), Catherine Sikora (tenor and soprano saxophones), Nick Didkovsky (guitar), and Josh Sinton (baritone saxophone and bass clarinet).

© 2015 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2015 SLAM Productions.

performance diary 09-10-17 (Cheltenham, Copenhagen, Derby, Hamburg, Munich, Newcastle)

upcoming performances
date venue time details
November 1, 2017 MS Stubnitz
Kirchenpauerkai 29
20457 Hamburg
Germany
8:30pm (doors: 8:00pm) Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar). Presented with funding from Verband für aktuelle Musik Hamburg.
Tickets: €12 (€6 students), €8 advance.
[Stubnitz page…] [VAMH page…]
November 2, 2017 Bryggekælderen
Njalsgade 15, 2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
8:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by Jazz Club Loco and Jvtlandt. Also performing: Sonja LaBianca (saxophone) and Heine Thorhauge Mathiasen (guitar). Admission: Kr. 60.
[Loco page…]
November 3, 2017 Francis Close Hall
University of Gloucestershire
Swindon Road
Cheltenham GL50 4AZ
England
8:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by Xposed Club. Also performing: Eugene Chadbourne. Tickets: £7 (£3).
Details to follow…
November 4, 2017 TBC
Derby, England
6:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by OUT FRONT!
Details to follow…
November 5, 2017 The Bridge Hotel
Castle Square
Newcastle NE1 1RQ
England
8:00pm Eris 136199 (Han-earl Park: guitar; Catherine Sikora: saxophones; and Nick Didkovsky: guitar) presented by Jazz North East. Also performing: Inclusion Principle (Herve Perez and Martin Archer: woodwind, electronics; and Peter Fairclough: percussion). Tickets: £8 (£6) [get tickets…]
[Jazz North East page…]
November 30, 2017 KlangBüro
Dachauerstrase 112d / Halle 6
80636 Munich
Germany
8:00pm (doors: 7:30pm) Han-earl Park (guitar).
Details to follow…

Continue reading “performance diary 09-10-17 (Cheltenham, Copenhagen, Derby, Hamburg, Munich, Newcastle)”