Apologies for cross-postings and duplications=E2=80=A6.
Released as part of SLAM Productions=E2=80=99 August 2011 CD catalog: =E2= =80=98io
0.0.1 beta++=E2=80=99 (SLAMCD 531) with Han-earl Park, Bruce Coates and Franziska Schroeder. Details (including how to get the CD) at:=E2=80=9CWe watch and listen carefully because we know we=E2=80=99re seeing= a kind of manifesto in action. What is an automaton? A sketch, a material characterization of the ideas the inventor and the inventor=E2=80=99s cultu= re 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.=E2=80=9D
=E2=80=94 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=E2=80=99 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=E2=80=94seemingly jerry-rigged, constructed fr= om ad-hoc components including plumbing, kitchenware, speakers and missile switches=E2=80=94celebrating the material and corporeal.The performances with this artificial musician highlight society=E2=80=99s 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=E2=80=935, 7 and 8 recorded May 25, and track 9 recorded May 26, 2=
010 at the =C3=93 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.
=C2=A9 2011 Han-earl Park. =E2=84=97 2011 SLAM Productions.