I’ve finally updated and reorganized my scrapbook. It’s been a few years since I last made changes to this audio and video archive, so there’s a good few additions, and a few more tracks (with Richard Barrett, Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders) will be added in the coming weeks. Below is a sample of some of the more recent additions. Enjoy!
Music by Murray Campbell, Randy McKean, Han-earl Park and Gino Robair.
Recorded live August 30, 2011 at Studio 1510, Oakland.
Recorded by Randy McKean. Mastered by Han-earl Park.
Music by Han-earl Park and Richard Scott.
Recorded Recorded on October 23, 2010 at Richard Scott’s studio, Berlin.
Recorded and mixed by Richard Scott.
Music by Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.
Recorded May 25, 2010 at the Ó Riada Hall, UCC Music Building, Cork.
Audio clip courtesy of SLAM Productions. ℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Recorded and mixed by Han-earl Park.
Seeking performance opportunities; particularly in North America during 2012–2013; and Europe, late-2013 and 2014 onwards (contact us for other locations and dates): composer, computer artist and guitarist Nick Didkovsky, guitarist, improviser and constructor Han-earl Park, and composer and saxophonist Catherine Sikora (saxophones).
Eris 136199 plays on the crossroads of noise, melody, rhythm, space, density, contrast, synchronicity, asymmetry, serendipity and contradiction. Eris 136199 is the noisy, unruly complexity of composer, computer artist and guitarist Nick Didkovsky, the corporeal, cyborg virtuosity of constructor and guitarist Han-earl Park, and the no-nonsense melodic logic of composer and saxophonist Catherine Sikora.
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 ensemble including Bang On A Can All-Stars and the California EAR Unit.
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, is part of Mathilde 253 with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith, and Numbers with Richard Barrett.
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 performs as part of ensembles led by Elliott Sharp, François Grillot and Matt Lavelle.
Together, Didkovsky, Park and Sikora forges 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.
Nick Didkovsky, Han-earl Park and Catherine Sikora are also available for performance/improvisation/composition workshops and talks.
And, as always, thanks to everyone who came to listen and witness real-time music in motion… including the one person in the audience who really did not dig what I was doing… at all %^}
Thanks to our hosts Freddy’s and, in particular, Michael Evans of On The Way Out for their generosity in offering us the stage to perform last night (July 24, 2012). Thanks also to Jesse Stacken and Don Mount for the recording and documentation, to Christine Bard’s cast of thousands for sharing the stage, and to all who came to listen.
And of course my thanks to the always creative Nick Didkovsky and endlessly imaginative Catherine Sikora. After the swift, seemingly effortlessness of the first performance by Eris 136199, this was much more of a struggle for me (in the best possible sense), ranging as it did from the loud, heavy machinery noises to the quiet, delicate sounds. Thanks, Nick, Catherine, for pushing and pulling the music into ever more interesting spaces. Really looking forward to the next time we get to play!
Side effects of Eris 136199 may include temporary deafness, involuntary teleportation, spontaneous combustion, and molecular implosion. In addition, lab animals have been shown to dance without skill to the sound of double guitars and saxophone. …But you’ll love what it does to your brain! 😉
updates
02–13–13: updated video: complete performance now available to view.
Mono kudos to the Ultimate Nick Didkovsky and the Astonishing Catherine Sikora for the noise, melody, rhythm, space, density, contrast, synchronicity, asymmetry, serendipity and contradiction. For forging a space where melody can be melody, noise can be noise, meter can be meter, bluegrass can be bluegrass, all there, all necessary without imploding under idiomatic pressures. To Nick’s noisy, unruly complexity, where ‘extended technique’ doesn’t mean you can’t jam-on-C. To Catherine with her big, big sound, formidable technique, and impeccable melodic sense, who to quote Michael Lytle’s description of the performance “sailed around and through” the “sound machines.” Let’s return to this trio soon!
A very big thanks to Paul Dunmall for performing with me on Friday [Details…]. It was (despite me suffering from a cold) a mind blowing experience. What a, to borrow an adjective Paul uses a lot, fantastic player. I’m reminded how much I have to learn and practice.
Currently, the videos are duplicates of those found on Google Video, but more should be forthcoming. As before, however, www.busterandfriends.com is likely to remain the most up-to-date source of info on yours truly.