Forth Music: io 0.0.1 beta++ (musical automaton and machine improviser)
Han-earl Park
Apologies for cross-postings and duplications….
Released as part of SLAM Productions’ August 2011 CD catalog: ‘io
0.0.1 beta++’ (SLAMCD 531) with Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and
Franziska Schroeder. Details (including how to get the CD) at:
http://www.io001b.com/slamcd531/
“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)
An extraordinary meeting between human and machine improvisers.
Featuring the machine musician io 0.0.1 beta++ with guitarist Han-earl
Park (Mathilde 253, Wadada Leo Smith) and saxophonists Bruce Coates
(Birmingham Improvisers’ Orchestra, Paul Dunmall) and Franziska
Schroeder (FAINT, Evan Parker), the recording is part critique and
part playful exploration, both a boundary-breaking demonstration of
socio-musical technologies and an ironic sci-fi parody.
Constructed by Han-earl Park, io 0.0.1 beta++ is a modern-day musical
automaton. It is not an instrument to be played but a non-human
artificial musician that performs alongside its human counterparts. io
0.0.1 beta++ represents a personal-political investigation of
technology, interaction, improvisation and musicality. It whimsically
evokes a 1950s B-movie robot—seemingly jerry-rigged, constructed from
ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware, speakers and
missile switches—celebrating the material and corporeal.
The performances with this artificial musician highlight society’s
entanglement with technology, demonstrate alternative modes of
interfacing the musical and the technological, and illuminate the
creative and improvisative processes in music. The performance is a
radical and playful engagement with powerful and problematic dreams
(and nightmares) of the artificial; a dream as old as the anthropology
of robots.
With liner notes by the California-based interactive media artist Sara
Roberts.
io 0.0.1 beta++ was constructed by Han-earl Park with funding from the
Arts Council of Ireland, and with significant input and feedback from
Bruce Coates, Franziska Schroeder, Murray Campbell, Sara Roberts and
Phil Burk.
Thanks to John Hough, Melanie L Marshall, Alex Fiennes, Kato Hideki,
John Godfrey, Clair McSweeney, Riccardo Vallebella, Paul Everett, Mel
Mercier, Kevin Terry and Stephanie Hough.
The recording preceded the performance at Blackrock Castle Observatory
which was presented with funding from the Music Network Performance
and Touring Award, and support from Blackrock Castle Observatory, the
Castle Bar and Trattoria and the UCC Department of Music.
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.
Recording details:
All music by Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder.
Tracks 1–5, 7 and 8 recorded May 25, and track 9 recorded May 26, 2010
at the Ó Riada Hall, UCC Department of Music, Cork. Track 6 recorded
August 19 2010 at C-ALTO Labs, Cork.
Recorded and mixed by Han-earl Park.
Design and artwork by Han-earl Park.
© 2011 Han-earl Park. ℗ 2011 SLAM Productions.