Improviser, guitarist and constructor Han-earl Park 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.
Press Quotes:
“Guitarist Han-earl Park is a musical philosopher…. Expect
unexpected things from Park, who is a delightful shape-
shifter….” Brian Morton (Point of Departure)
“Han-earl Park… is as at home in underground Noise as he is
dueting with free jazz heroes like Paul Dunmall. Park uses
pedals to smudge and smear chords or rolls out strange
robotic grumblings, a technician playing electricity as much as
the guitar.” Daniel Spicer (Jazzwise)
“Remarkable strategies from the guitarist which involve
investing each string with a different weight as he coaxes
tones from near the machine head all the way down past the
bridge.” Ken Waxman (JazzWord)
“Imaginatively dissonant barbedly-wire phrases and false-
harmonic scatterings….” Ed Pinsent (The Sound Projector)
“Park applies every technique to his detuned ax -- tapping,
sliding, muting, twisting the machine heads. It’s simultaneously
disciplined and barbaric.” Greg Burk (MetalJazz)
“Park is the one to pay close attention to… the development
of his ideas is fascinating and very logical….” Jeph Jerman
(The Squid’s Ear)
