Unlike the last time, Bruce and I are actually on the same set. Plus, I can barely believe this, but it’s been ten years since I first played with Bruce. Come along, folks; help us celebrate.

October 28, 2014 at 8:00pm: Fizzle presents guitarist Han-earl Park (performing with Dominic Lash: double bass; and Mark Sanders: drums) and saxophonist Bruce Coates (performing as part of A, B & C with Lee Allatson: drums; and Stewart Brackley: bass). The event takes place at The Lamp Tavern (Barford Street, Birmingham B5 6AH) [map…]. Admission is £5 (£3).

It’s been a little while since any of us involved in this machine improvisation project shared a stage, and though Bruce and I are playing separate sets, it’ll be a welcome reunion.

Han-earl Park

Based in Brooklyn, during 2012, Han-earl Park has been performing with Michael Evans, Louise Dam Eckardt Jensen, Josh Sinton, Andrew Drury and others. He participated in Gowanus Company IV at the Douglass Street Music Collective, and as part of Out Of Your Head Brooklyn. A particular musical highlight was the performance with Tim Perkis and Harris Eisenstadt at The Stone (NYC) on September 7. On May 27, Eris 136199 (Nick Didkovsky, Han-earl Park and Catherine Sikora) debuted at Citizens Ontological Music Agenda/ABC No Rio (NYC).

2012 also saw the release of Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park’s ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) from Creative Sources. A CD with a “bazillions of events” and of “transonic beauty and extreme structural atomization” according to Massimo Ricci, the record made Délire actuel’s 2012 Demanding Music Top 30. Barrett and Park performed in Scarborough on May 3, 2012. During that micro-tour, Park also performed as part of Mathilde 253 (with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith) at Freedom of the City (London), and as guest performer with the Mark Hanslip/Dominic Lash/Phillip Marks trio at Jazz @ The Oxford (London).

Audio recordings coming out in 2013 include ‘apophenia: A atomic symphony in 10 movements ii you seek iii a comfortable spot to listen iv to this v track the sofa perhaps vi or the vii floor however viii standing hand ix suspended over the volume x control you xi find that xii it is’ as part of ‘The $100 Guitar Project’ (BRIDGE 9381A/B) from Bridge Records, and the rerelease of the download album with Paul Dunmall and Mark Sanders which will be the final in the current series of download releases from busterandfriends.com (an earlier release in that series was with io 0.0.1 beta++ collaborator, Franziska Schroeder).

In addition to continuing his work with existing projects including Eris 136199, in 2013, Park will be performing and documenting a set of interactive, improvisative macros (he hesitates to actually call them compositions). Catherine Sikora and Josh Sinton and Park will perform an initial test-run at On The Way Out/Freddy’s (Brooklyn) on March 26.

Bruce Coates

‘Node/Flow/Mass Disaster Box’ at Magna (Rotherham, November 4, 2012). Photo © 2012 Bruce Coates.

Notable performance events in 2012 included the ‘Node/Flow/Mass Disaster Box’ at Magna (Rotherham) in November:

‘Node/Flow/Mass Disaster Box’ is an improvised sound piece bringing together 50 vocal and musical improvisers from the Midlands and South Yorkshire, performing on this magnificent post-industrial site. Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra and Juxtavoices, a unique Sheffield experimental anti-choir, provide the core of the performers along with musicians from all over the country.

Devised by Geoff Bright and Walt Shaw, the piece works with the idea of social processes and flows where individuals gather in groups, congregate as large collectives and disperse once again. Through sound improvisation it explores the history and atmosphere of the building and the spririt involved in the evacuation of the workplace. All inspired by the original 1970s steelworks’ ‘Diaster Box’, which contained plans, maps and procedures for evacuation in the event of a catastrophic explosion. [Read the rest…]

In addition to performances by the Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra, new projects for 2013 include a duo with Walt Shaw, and a trio with Christopher Hobbs (percussion/electronics) and Virginia Anderson (clarinets) which will be debuting at Fizzle (Birmingham) on February 5.

Franziska Schroeder

Franziska Schroeder, Showcase Concert 2012 flyer. © 2012, Franziska Schroeder. Photograph by Caroline Forbes.

In 2012 Franziska Schroeder had a few exciting gigs, such as playing with her trio FAINT at the Perspective on Musical Improvisation in Oxford, commissioning new works for saxophones, premiered at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast, playing at the Sounds New Contemporary Music Festival in Canterbury, as well as doing a great new work with Evan Parker and a group of traditional and improvising contemporary musicians, premiered at the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, Belfast.

Schroeder was the Artistic Director of the Sonorities Festival, and she is also now the Chair of the Events Committee of the School of Creative Arts (CATE) at Queen’s University Belfast.

Schroeder published two chapters, one on the changes of form in music as brought forth by digital platforms. The chapter is ‘Shifting Listening Identities—Towards a Fluidity of Form in Digital Music’, and appears in S. Broadhurst and J. Machon (eds.), Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of Empowerment, Embodiment and Technicity (Palgrave Macmillan).

The other chapter is co-authored with choreographer and pianist Imogene Newland and is entitled ‘The Musical Body—Devising a choreo-musical interpretation for the work Tierkreis (1974–75) by Karlheinz Stockhausen’. The work will appear in Nine Ways of Seeing a Body: Body & Performance (Triarchy Press) in 2013.

Schroeder is working hard on editing and writing for a forthcoming volume on improvisation, to include writings by David Borgo, Georgina Born and Evan Parker. Forthcoming in 2013: Improvisation in the 21st Century (Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

And last, Schroeder received a teaching development grant from the HEA (Higher Education Academy) to run the PhD public engagement training called ‘BIG EARS – learning to design sonic arts’ [Twitter…].

Han-earl Park

Leaving Cork in the summer of 2011, Han-earl Park was resident in California for six months during which time he performed with Gino Robair, Tim Perkis, John Shiurba, Matt Ingalls, Scott R. Looney, Ted Byrnes and Kris Tiner, and as a guest of Gargantius Effect (Murray Campbell and Randy McKean). In December, Vicmod Records released Han-earl Park and Richard Scott’s ‘artillery’ (VMDL11).

Relocating to Brooklyn in December 2011, Park made his New York debut at the Roulette as part of the Silver Orchestra for Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith’s 70th birthday event presented by Interpretations. His first performances in 2012 was a duo with saxophonist-scholar Tracy McMullen at the Downtown Music Gallery, and with saxophonist-composer Catherine Sikora at The Brecht Forum.

2012 will see the release of Richard Barrett and Han-earl Park’s ‘Numbers’ (CS 201 cd) by Creative Sources Recordings. In addition to what he hopes will be a creative time in NY, he will be back in Europe in April/May performing as part of Numbers and Mathilde 253 (with Charles Hayward and Ian Smith), and, in October, Numbers will be performing across North America.

Bruce Coates

Mutt: Jonny Marks, Bruce Coates and Walt Shaw (photo © 2012 Claire Coates)

In addition to his continuing work with FrImp and Improvisation Birmingham, in April 2012, Bruce Coates performs/conducts as part of Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra: Migrations at Déda (Derby):

Using film, dance and performance art, Migration is created in response to the orchestra’s improvised soundtrack. The piece explores ideas about the movement and displacement of people—not only the political, economic and ecological factors, but also the human desire to find a place to belong.

More info…

Franziska Schroeder

In 2011, Franziska Schroeder, the theorist-practitioner, presented at Digital Resources in the Humanities and Arts conference (Ningbo) and performed at the International Computer Music Conference (Huddersfield).

In 2012, Schroeder will be taking on the Artistic Direction for the Sonorities Festival (Belfast), premiering a new work by Evan Parker commissioned by the PRS, running the Sonic Arts Research Centre’s Public Engagement Training for PhD students (‘Big Ears’), performing as part of Noise Quartet Concert (April), premiere of five new works by SARC PhD composers (May).

Forthcoming articles will include a book chapter, ‘Shifting Listening Identities—Towards a Fluidity of Form in Digital Music’, in Identity, Performance and Technology: Practices of empowerment, embodiment and technicity edited by S. Broadhurst and J. Machon (Palgrave Macmillan), and ‘Network[ed] Listening—Towards a de-centering of beings’ in Contemporary Music Review (Routledge).