Photo © 2010, Stephanie Hough.
Back, behind-the-scenes, I still have some articles in draft form that both detail the nuts’n’bolts decision-making processes in the construction of a machine improviser, and self-reflective critique such constructions, detailing the trade-offs and shortcomings of such an entity, and its design and implementation. I would like to get back to work on these at some point as they may provide as both cautionary tales and critical guides in future constructions of ‘creative’ automata and machine performances, and to anyone engaged in the critical (reverse-)engineering of such entities and their constructions. (There are so many stories, (self-)reflective and (self-)critical, of shortcoming and failures that get lost in our need to tell tales of technocultural heroics.)
Meanwhile, in this post I’d like to provide a selective index of documentation of io 0.0.1 beta++, its construction and performance, both of material published on this site and elsewhere.
Overview
\ constructor: Han-earl Park \ copyright 2008 buster & friends' C-ALTO Labs \ \ www.busterandfriends.com/io \ \ (Edinburgh, November 1996 - \ (London, August 1997 - \ (Den Haag, October 1997 - \ (Valencia, March 1999 - \ (Southampton, May 2000 - \ (Cork, April 2006 - \ \ (Cork, October 2008 - \ \ REV: 0.0.1 alpha (Southampton, October 2000) \ REV: 0.0.1 beta (Southampton, November 2000) \ REV: 0.0.1 alpha++ (Southampton, July 2004) \ REV: 0.0.1 beta++ (Cork, May 2010)
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.
Standing as tall as a person, io 0.0.1 beta++ whimsically evokes a 1950s B-movie robot, constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware and missile switches. It celebrates the material and corporeal; embracing the localized and embodied aspects of sociality, performance and improvisation.
Chronology
- 1996–1999: Coding of early experiments, tests, and software components:
- Edinburgh, 1996–1997
- London, 1997
- The Hague, 1997–1999
- March 1999: Construction of io begins in earnest, Valencia, California.
- April 2000: Debut performance of working prototype of io at the Roy O. Disney Concert Hall, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia.
- October 2000: REV: 0.0.1 alpha, Southampton, England.
- November 2000: REV: 0.0.1 beta, Southampton.
- December 2000: Recording of io 0.0.1 beta at De Illusie, The Hague, The Netherlands.
- July 2004: REV: 0.0.1 alpha++, Southampton.
- January 2008: With funding from the Arts Council of Ireland, major update and revision of io begins, Cork, Ireland.
- May 2010: REV: 0.0.1 beta++, Cork, Ireland.
- Recording session at Ó Riada Hall, UCC Department of Music.
- Debut performance at Blackrock Castle Observatory, Cork with funding from Music Network and support from UCC Department of Music.
- August 2011: ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) released by SLAM Productions.
Documentation
Audio recordings
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)
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531). [Details…]
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.
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Articles and publications
My article, ‘In Conversation with an Automaton: Identities and Agency in a Heterogeneous Social and Musical Network’ [local copy…], published in the Leonardo Electronic Almanac: ‘My Favorite Things: The Joy of the Gizmo’ (Volume 15, No. 11-12, November–December 2007) is still probably the best description of the motivations and choices behind the io enterprise.
Abstract
io 0.0.1 beta is an interactive, semi-autonomous technological artifact that, in partnership with its human associates, performs a deliberately amplified staging of a socio-technical network—a network in which primary protocol is improvisation. In this paper, I explore the performance of identities, hybrids and relationships, illustrating the space between myself (human partner and constructor) and io through imaginary conversations between us. Considering that io highlights, in particular, the social agency of artifacts, I find it fitting that my own notions about the nature of improvisation, the technical and the social have changed through my interactions with io.
In addition, this site has the following short pieces about the construction of io 0.0.1 beta++:
Han-earl Park, ‘frankenmusic(s),’ November 25, 2008:
Fifteen days ago, during the break between beta test sessions, Franziska Schroeder asked a pithy question that cut to the core of this enterprise: what do I hope to achieve? My answer surprised me even as it reminded me of Sara’s observation: my goal with io (and io++) is to encapsulate my take on improvisation—its mechanisms, its sociality, its significance. [Read the rest…]
Franziska Schroeder, ‘io + I met,’ November 24, 2008:
Who is io? What does she sound like? How would she react to me? Would she respond? Would she challenge me (musically, that is). In other words, would she adopt sensitively to changes, make creative contributions and develop musical ideas suggested by me? [Read the rest…]
Images
images © 2010 Stephanie Hough, and © 2010–2011 Han-earl Park [additional images (google gallery)…]
Source code
Download all source files (requires HMSL to run):
View individual source files linked below:
]]>\ additional midi stuff include? task-midi_plus myt:midi_plus \ device classes include? task-device myt:device include? task-midi_device myt:midi_device include? task-interpreter myt:interpreter include? task-ctrl_interpreter myt:ctrl_interpreter include? task-fan_out myt:fan_out \ input components include? task-parser myt:parser include? task-mono_parser myt:mono_parser include? task-mono_parser+ myt:mono_parser+ include? task-poly_parser myt:poly_parser include? task-guitar_parser myt:guitar_parser include? task-parser_list myt:parser_list include? task-pulse_tracker myt:pulse_tracker include? task-pulse_tracker+ myt:pulse_tracker+ include? task-banalyzer myt:banalyzer include? task-banalyzer+ myt:banalyzer+ \ output components include? task-gm_instrument myt:gm_instrument include? task-gm_drumkit myt:gm_drumkit include? task-gm_patch myt:gm_patch include? task-vl_sysex myt:vl_sysex include? task-vl_instrument myt:vl_instrument include? task-vl_patch myt:vl_patch \ "henri poincare" include? task-floatingpoint hsys:floatingpoint include? task-hp_util myt:hp_util include? task-hp_fputil myt:hp_fputil include? task-hp_particle myt:hp_particle include? task-hp_force myt:hp_force include? task-hp_space myt:hp_space include? task-hp_gravity myt:hp_gravity include? task-hp_fpgravity myt:hp_fpgravity include? task-hp_particle_player myt:hp_particle_player \ graphics include? task-graph_plus myt:graph_plus include? task-gr_view myt:gr_view include? task-screen+ myt:screen+ include? task-ctrl_numeric+ myt:ctrl_numeric+ \ io -- globals and configuration include? task-io_config io:io_config include? task-io_glob io:io_glob \ io -- modules include? task-io_interp_table io:modules:io_interp_table include? task-io_interp io:modules:io_interp include? task-io_player io:modules:io_player include? task-io_particle io:modules:io_particle include? task-io_space io:modules:io_space include? task-io_patches io:modules:io_patches include? task-io_pdur_dlog io:modules:io_pdur_dlog \ io -- main components io_test? .IF include? task-hp_screen myt:hp_screen include? task-hp_screen+ myt:hp_screen+ .THEN include? task-io_hp io:io_hp include? task-io_matrix io:io_matrix include? task-io_input io:io_input include? task-io_output io:io_output \ io - user interface include? task-io_ui io:io_ui include? task-io_screen io:io_screen io_file? .IF include? task-file_elmnts myt:file_elmnts include? task-file_elmnts_mac myt:file_elmnts_mac include? task-io_file_scene io:modules:io_file_scene include? task-io_file_glue io:modules:io_file_glue include? task-io_file io:modules:io_file .THEN io_turnkey? .IF include? task-dialog myt:dialog include? task-midi_menu myt:midi_menu include? task-io_menus io:modules:io_menus .THEN \ io - top level include? task-io_top io:io_top
Expériences de résonnances et d’occupation de l’espace sonore. Très dramatique sans narration. Tout l’espace est occupé, toujours de manière surprenante, avec peu de sons, peu de matière (toutefois l’occupation peut se densifier sans rupture), travaillée finement, une dentelle de musique. Des allers et venues des sons comme de personnages sur ce qu’on peut vraiment appeler une scène musicale. Un travail de legato général, structurel, dans la rupture permanente des sons individuels. Un disque étonnant dans lequel les sons de l’automate sont reconnaissable sans être décalés. Les humains ne jouent pas comme s’ils étaient entre eux, le robot les influence, l’inverse est vrai. [Read the rest…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) [details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
It was about four years ago that—totally by chance: I found the CD in my mailbox—I listened to guitarist Han-earl Park for the very first time. While at first I believed that the only featured musicians on the album besides Park were Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder, a closer examination revealed that, besides being the name of the album, the tag ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ was also the name of the fourth member of the line-up: a “musical automata” that was fully engaged in an improvising role, in deep dialogue with those three “humans”. Something that, though not totally unprecedented—I’ll only mention trombonist George Lewis and his software program called Voyager—involved a lot of interesting issues. I have to add that the work appeared interesting and stimulating anyway, a feeling of quality staying with the listener well after all those intellectual preoccupations had been thoroughly investigated. [Read the rest…] [In Italian…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) [details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Anomic Aphasia (SLAMCD 559) [details…]
personnel: 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.
I’m creating YouTube samplers of some of the more recent items in my discography, and I’ve started by uploading a trailer for ‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) [more info on the recording…].
On the stage: two men, a woman, and an artifact, a freestanding mélange of industrial, military, and domestic hardware. The humans hold graceful, polished objects, but the domed assemblage stands alone. And while the woman and men make sound (vibrate the air) holding and fingering the graceful objects, the artifact, named io 0.0.1 beta++, makes sounds without being touched at all. io and the humans improvise together, listening to each other, responding to each other’s musical gestures.
Sara Roberts (from the liner notes)
Music by Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.
Images © 2010 Han-earl Park, and © 2010 Stephanie Hough.
Video collage © 2014 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Intellectually, if nothing else, the pair [Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park] are an intriguing match. Before his meeting with Barrett, in May 2010, Park recorded an album, io 0.0.1 beta++ (SLAM), with two human companions, both saxophonists, and the titular automaton, io 0.0.1 beta++, which Park constructed himself.
Park describes io 0.0.1 as: “not an instrument to be played but a non-human artificial musician (‘constructed from ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware, speakers and missile switches’) that performs alongside its human counterparts.” Performing with an automaton, Park says: “demonstrates alternative modes of interfacing the musical and the technological, and illuminates the creative and improvisative processes in music.”
In his duo [‘Numbers’] with the abstracted electronics of Barrett, Park explores pretty similar sonic terrain…. [Read the rest…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
personnel: Richard Barrett (electronics) and Han-earl Park (guitar). [About this duo…]
© + ℗ 2012 Creative Sources Recordings.
Progetto rumoristico, destrutturato, ad elevato tasso di provocazione e insieme di ispirazione ed ascolto “altri”, io 0.0.1 beta ++ salta il preambolo ed esiste d’emblée nelle iperacide note della distorta chitarra di Han-Earl Park che di getto aprono le lievitanti turbolenze di un trio minacciosamente sensibile (o viceversa) e forte, peraltro, di una piuttosto enfatica auto-presentazione “Sul palco: due uomini, una donna e un artefatto, un mélange sospeso di hardware industriale, militare e domestico. Gli umani reggono oggetti lucidi e graziosi, ma il marchingegno si regge solitario; e mentre la donna e gli uomini producono suono (vibrando l’aria) toccando e diteggiando i graziosi oggetti, l’artefatto suona senza esser toccato affatto. Esso e gli umani improvvisano insieme, rispondendo alle reciproche gestualità musicali”.
Le corde tese di Park imbastiscono un plateau scabro ma di lungo e persistente respiro, vivente nelle articolazioni e nella tessitura della sua fisica elettroacustica; mentre sul versante “meccanico” dell’instrumentarium i modi performanti di Franziska Schroeder arricchiscono l’altra metà del sax (a fianco delle Matana Roberts, Alexandra Grimal, Ingrid Laubrock etc.) di una voce sperimentante e nuda, in sintonia e insieme dissonanza con i flussi paralleli e convergenti del free-player purosangue Bruce Coates, e il tutto si dipana entro uno svolgimento a canovaccio libero e istantaneo, lungo il suo deviante svolgimento interrogandosi (senza eccessivo paradosso) se l’autentica “alienità” sia rispettivamente appannaggio della cosa o, piuttosto e viceversa, dell’ “umano”.
E ancora così prosegue la sofisticata presentazione (peraltro abbastanza sinergica agli intendimenti dei tre): “io non ha inclinazione melodica e non ha addestramento narrativo per prevalere: vi è, però, un definito sentimento di connessione in ciò che Park chiama: gestualità non-periodiche, che nondimeno evocano periodicità”.
Ennesimo esempio di post-avanguardia “desiderante” (com’era in voga insinuare nell’era della sperimentazione più politicizzata—almeno negli intenti), io 0.0.1 beta ++ vive di ascolto trasmissivo e di performance aperta, che si abbevera nell’istantaneità, e nell’interplay sdogana il segno ed il polso strutturante dell’aleatorietà.
Insomma, l’avanguardia è tornata: non che fosse mai stata davvero latitante, ma gli interrogativi sonori, lacerati e critici, del trio pongono come oggetto radicale la disumanizzazione progressiva e le implicazioni del sempre più preponderante avvento della macchina, forse retrodatando le intenzioni alle prime decadi del secolo scorso e alle relative allarmistiche dottrine, ma riprendendole lungo le forme acutamente nervose e l’attenzione creativa dei medianici e cyborghiani performers e del loro interplay attrattivamente imperfetto. [Original article…]
Translation by Leofranc Holford-Strevens and Melanie L. Marshall:
A noisy, unstructured project, with a high level of provocation and at the same time of inspiration and listening to ‘other’, io 0.0.1 beta ++ skips the preamble and inhabits straightaway in the hyperacid notes of Han-Earl Park’s distorted guitar, which on one go open the fermenting turbulence of a menacingly perceptible trio (or vice versa), yet strong in a rather emphatic self-presentation: “On the stage: two men, a woman, and an artifact, a freestanding mélange of industrial, military, and domestic hardware. The humans hold graceful, polished objects, but the domed assemblage stands alone. And while the woman and men make sound (vibrate the air) holding and fingering the graceful objects, the artifact makes sounds without being touched at all. io and the humans improvise together, listening to each other, responding to each other’s musical gestures.”
The tight strings of Park improvise a rugged plateau but of long-term and lasting, living in the articulation and in the range of his electroacoustic physics, while on the ‘mechanical’ side of the instrumentarium the performing styles of Franziska Schroeder enrich the other half of the sax (alongside Matana Roberts, Alexandra Grimal, Ingrid Laubrock etc.) with a naked and experimental voice, together in harmony and dissonance with parallel and converging streams of the thoroughbred free-player Bruce Coates, and everything unfolds within a free and instantaneous improvisation, throughout its deviant development inquiring (without excessive paradox) whether authentic ‘otherness’ is the prerogative of the matter or, rather and viceversa of, the ‘human’.
And so the sophisticated presentation continues (quite synergistic with the intentions of the three): “io is not melodically inclined and has no narrative training to overcome; there is, though, a definite feeling of connection, in what Park calls ‘non-periodic gestures that nonetheless evoke periodicity.’”
Yet another example of ‘desiring’ post-avant-garde (as it was fashionable to suggest in the era of more politicized experimentation—at least intended as such), io 0.0.1 beta++ experiences a transmissive listening and open performance, which drinks in instantaneity and in the interplay displays the sign and the structuring pulse of the aleatory.
In short, the avant-garde is back: not that it ever really went away, but the questioning sounds, mangled and critical, of the trio set out as a radical object progressive dehumanization and the implications of the ever more dominant advent of the machine, perhaps backdating its intentions to the first decades of the last century and its alarmist theories, but taking them up through the acutely nervous forms and creative attention of medium-like and cyborgian performers and their charmingly imperfect interplay.
Incidentally, this review quotes from Sara Roberts’ liner notes.
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
With improvisations matching traditional instruments with electronic manipulations now commonplace, Cork-based guitarist Han-earl Park personifying Dr. Frankenstein, has created a non-human artificial musician from ad-hoc components including speakers, kitchenware and missile switches. This CD is a literal record of how the non-human, prosaically named io 0. 0. 1 beta++, sounds in concert with flesh-and-blood counterparts….
For a start, Park, who regularly plays with trumpeter Ian Smith and drummer Charles Hayward; alto and sopranino saxophonist Bruce Coates, co-founder of the Birmingham Improvisers Orchestra; and soprano saxophonist Franziska Schroeder, a lecturer at Belfast’s School of Music and Sonic Arts, all have long histories of working with advanced, experimental musicians. These include live-electronics stylist Richard Barrett and accordionist Pauline Oliveros. Moreover io 0. 0. 1 beta++ is unobtrusive and egoless enough—no surprise—to warble its staccato particle contributions without trying to engulf or show up the humans. Its contributions are unique enough on their own.
For instance on the initial ‘Pioneer: Variance’ and ‘Pioneer: Dance’ contrasting alto and soprano saxophone trills and squeaks are put into bolder relief as the otherworldly flutters, oscillated tones and flanged rotations of the machine are kept in a straight line by Park’s legato picking. The thoughtful pauses audible in the guitar playing confirms Park’s human-ness, especially when compared to the grainy whistles and juddering vibrations that arise from io 0. 0. 1 beta++. Additionally, while the machine’s gradually swelling splutters and harsh quivers demonstrate broken octave counterpoint to the saxophonists’ multiphonic oscillations, its hissing abrasions retreat into the background as Park’s spidery licks become more rhythmic.
Nonetheless the machine further demonstrates its versatility on the 59-second ‘4G’, with metallic muted trombone-like snores and even raises the question as to whether io 0. 0. 1 beta++ or extended saxophone techniques are creating the air pops and abrasive tongue flutters on subsequent tracks. In the main crackling reductionist resonations are attributed to its properties, while any legato or lyrical intermezzos are, more likely than not, propelled from the instruments and imaginations of full-fledged Homo sapiens.
Succinctly as the three demonstrate on ‘Return Trajectory’, during which io 0. 0. 1 beta++ appears to have taken five, an additional voice—human or otherwise—is necessary to create a pleasing sound picture. The guitarist’s connective down strokes plus the swelling layers of contrapuntal reed timbres are distinctive and solipsistic enough on their own.
Notable in demonstrating what artificial intelligent can contribute to an improv session, this CD also confirms that the very artificiality of AI confirms that robotic players won’t be taking all the musicians’ jobs any time soon. [Read the rest…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Il titolo da romanzo o di sigla di messaggio segreto è il nome della macchina sparamusica/rumori che fa bella mostra di sè sul palco e che senza alcun intervento dei musicisti intorno tira giù il suo catalogo di suoni con cui gli altri si trovano a confrontarsi. Un´idea che sarebbe piaciuta ai futuristi di omai un secolo fa, un inno totale alla modernità. Altro che strumenti acustici!
I tre musicisti coinvolti insieme alla macchina sono Han-earl Park alla chitarra, Bruce Coates al sax alto e sopranino e Franziska Schroeder al sax soprano. Non hanno nessuna paura per il confronto e così si avventano con passione sulla proposta dell´oggetto inanimato.
La session completamente improvvisata richiede molta attenzione da parte dell´ascoltatore, ripagata completamente da quello che è un esperimento riuscito. Non siamo qui in presenza di programmi che danno un risultato che il compositore/programmatore si aspetta già bensì di una macchina lasciata in balia di se stessa a proporre, rispondere, per quel che è la sua comprensione, rilanciare, su cui il trio dei musicisti umani crea interazione all´istante, improvvisazioni che a tratti acquistano atmosfere molto forti.
I tre non stanno solo a scoprire le possibilità intrinseche ai loro strumenti al di fuori delle tecniche ortodosse. Stanno anche ad esplorare, a farsi prendere dalle possibilità intrinseche al suono in quanto tale ed a volte sembra di ascoltare la lezione di uno Steve Lacy. È cosí che il tutto acquista una dimensione più terrestre e l´incontro/scontro con la macchina improvvisante regala paesaggi sonori inconsueti e densi di idee. [Original article…]
Translation:
The title of the romance or cypher of the secret message is the name of the sparamusica/noise machine that makes a fine show of itself on stage and without any intervention from musicians around, draws from its catalog of sounds with which the others find themselves confronted. An idea that would be pleasing to the Futurists of a century ago, a total hymn to modernity. Nothing but acoustic instruments!
The three musicians involved with the machine are Han-earl Park on guitar, Bruce Coates on alto and sopranino, and Franziska Schroeder on soprano sax. They have no fear for the confrontation, and they throw themselves with passion on the ideas from the inanimate object.
The completely improvised session requires a lot of attention from the listener, to be fully repaid by that which is a successful experiment. Here we are not in the presence of programs that give a result that the composer/programmer expects but of a machine left to propose, to answer without any help, for what it is its understanding, raise the stakes, on which the trio of human musicians create instant interactions, improvisations that at times acquires a very intense atmosphere.
The three do not only discover the intrinsic possibilities of their instruments outside orthodox techniques. They also explore, make themselves take from the intrinsic possibilities of the sound, and sometimes seems like listening to a lesson by Steve Lacy. So the whole acquires a more earthly dimension and the encounter/clash with the improvising machine presents unusual soundscapes full of ideas.
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Este é um falso quarteto entre uma máquina de improvisar, o io 0.0.1 beta++, criada pelo guitarrista Han-earl Park, e três improvisadores humanos, o próprio Park e os saxofonistas Bruce Coates (alto e sopranino) e Franziska Schroeder (soprano). O autómato em questão tem um computador incorporado, mas foi construído com utensílios de cozinha. Os sons que produz são de espectro limitado, pois o propósito é ironizar as bandas sonoras dos filmes de ficção científica das décadas de 1950 e 60. Os músicos de carbono envolvidos ora trabalham na área do ‘avant-jazz’, ora na da electroacústica de fronteira com a música contemporânea: Park com Charles Hayward, Wadada Leo Smith e Paul Dunmall, Coates com Tony Oxley, Lol Coxhill e o compositor indeterminista Christian Wolff, e Schroeder ao lado do pianista português Pedro Rebelo e em colaborações com Pauline Oliveros e Evan Parker. Todas essas experiências se reflectem em temas como ‘Ground-Based Telemetry’ e ‘Laplace: Instability’, sempre com o io a reagir interactivamente ao que fazem e até a dar-lhes deixas. [Read original…]
Translation below by Felipe Hickman.
This is a fake quartet between an improvisation machine, io 0.0.1 beta++, created by guitarist Han-earl Park, and three human improvisors, Park himself and saxophonists Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano). The automaton in question has a computer attached, but was built with kitchen utensils. The sounds it produces have a limited spectrum, as the purpose is to mock the soundtracks of sci-fi movies from the 1950s and 60s. The carbon musicians involved sometimes work in the field of ‘avant-jazz’, sometimes on the electroacoustics’ border with contemporary music: Park with Charles Hayward, Wadada Leo Smith and Paul Dunmall, Coates with Tony Oxley, Lol Coxhill and the indeterminacy composer Christian Wolff, and Schroeder besides the Portuguese pianist Pedro Rebelo and in collaborations with Pauline Oliveros and Evan Parker. All these experiences are reflected in themes such as ‘Ground-Based Telemetry’ and ‘Laplace: Instability’, always with io interactively reacting to what they do and even giving them cues.
This review apparently appeared in jazz.pt (#39, November 2011). Can anyone confirm this? Unfortunately I don’t have access to the print magazine.
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
Press/publicity photos and images of io 0.0.1 beta++, its construction and performances, are collated at:
picasaweb.google.com/hanearlpark/io001beta
Photographs copyright the photographers. If you use any of the images, please credit the corresponding photographer. [Additional images…].
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
The guitarist [Han-earl] Park, sometime member of Mathilde 253 whose fine CD impressed us in March this year, is joined by two improvising saxophonists, Bruce Coates (from the Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra) and Franziska Schroeder (member of the trio FAINT), and the record documents the meeting of this trio with the “machine musician” io 0.0.1 beta++. This device is an automaton, a musical robot if you will, built by Mr Park; it’s not just another computer programme that plays random sounds or builds an “interactive” space for other laptop musicians, but actually occupies physical space and performs on the stage alongside its human counterparts. Shades of Pierre Bastien…. The multi-media artist Sara Roberts from California writes the liner notes and she does a much better job than I possibly could in articulating the cultural resonances of this man-meets-automaton event. [Read the rest…]
— Ed Pinsent (The Sound Projector)
Meanwhile, what to me is ‘playful’ may be ‘uncompromising’ to someone else. After some very positive reviews (including those by Beppe Colli, François Couture and Bruce Lee Gallanter), Alberto Bazzurro at All About Jazz Italia writes a more reserved take the recoding:
Fra segmenti più atmosferico-minimali, e altri invece più frammentati e nervosi, si procede così, talora arrestandosi a una sorta di limbo emozionale, di quieta truculenza, peraltro sempre ammirevole per coerenza e rigore. [Read the rest…]
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.
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)
[More info on the recording…] [All reviews…]
‘io 0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) is available from SLAM Productions. [Details…]
personnel: io 0.0.1 beta++ (itself), Han-earl Park (guitar), Bruce Coates (alto and sopranino saxophones) and Franziska Schroeder (soprano saxophone).
© 2011 Han-earl Park.
℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.