By Sammy Stein
Han Earl Park, Pat Thomas, and Lara Jones need little introduction to fans
of alluring, free music but for those not familiar with them, Park is an
improvising musician who specializes in guitar and percussive music. He is
a shapeshifter of a musician, a chameleon who transfers easily from
beautiful passages to discordant ruminations. His music is joyful,
energetic, and packed with rhythm patterns as changeable as they are
engaging. He has performed with Lol Coxhill, Wadado Leao Smith, Mark
Sanders, Evan Parker, and more.
Lara Jones is an experimental producer, DJ, saxophonist, keyboardist, and
lyricist, who creates high-energy music and has worked with fellow artists
in various ensembles and formats. Her music transcends genres, and Jones
refuses to be boxed in by genres or gender definitions.
Pat Thomas began playing classical piano as a child but switched to jazz in
his teenage years. Renowned for his intense, amorphic music, Thomas is an
inspiration for improvising musicians. He was integral to the Black Top
Project with Orphy Robinson and has performed with Hamid Drake, William
Parker, John Butcher, and many others.
Park, Jones, and Thomas are Juno 3, and on Proxemics they demonstrate the
achievements of a trio in live performance with intrinsic skills in
listening, playing, and collaborating. The album was recorded live during
the trio’s performance at London’s Cafe OTO for the EFG London Jazz
Festival in November 2023.
The music is in two parts, ‘Derealization’ and ‘Proxemis’ respectively
representing two sets performed at Oto. Each track, let alone six-track
set, feels like an exploration into different ways guitar, sax, piano, and
electronics can be melded in an improvised performance.
From the screeching eeriness created in ‘Derealization I’ where vaguely
connected electronic harmonic runs give way on occasion to melodic, then
non-so melodic interjections from the sax, there are themes, counter-themes
and an exchange of ideas, often thrown down by Thomas for the others to
reflect – albeit changed. This pattern is further explored in
‘Derealization II’, III, IV, with added melodic lines from the guitar in V
and VI. Spot the opening of a melody from an old sixties track (Popcorn) in
Realization II that sits alongside current, visceral electronic sounds for
the briefest moment and then relish the simple melodies that interact with
complex, guttural squawks, whistles, engine noises and vaguely harmonically
linked lines from sax and guitar.
The ’Proxemics’ set is more intense and power-driven than the
‘Derealization’ set. ‘Proxemics I’ sees the energy building as quartets of
chords chase across the background, while gentle guitar notes weave their
way into and out of the sound. There is a set rhythm pattern for most of
the track, under and over which the improvisers weave different, yet
connected sounds. Proxemics II develops the exploration further, and
Proxemics III introduces another dimension – rivulets of sound that fall
from the keys, keynotes held by the sax, and the guitar deftly filling the
gaps, like splashes from the pool. The quietude of the second third is
dispelled as the instruments crash in to take the sounds up and loud.
The music is challenging in places–visceral with confronting rhythms and
keys that merge – almost–before veering off in different directions,
creating a sense of clashing ideas, yet a willingness also to (eventually)
end up on the same musical path.
It is music for the open-minded and at times, the tonality is so jarring
that it takes the listener somewhere else, only to be brought back to the
present by a snippet of melody or harmonic progressions before another clash
of sounds impacts the brain and the mist descends again.
These three musicians know what they are doing – the sound is integrated,
yet audacious, swashbuckling yet provocative. This is improved music as it
should be live and played well.
Park says of the recording, “During the mix, I came to realize this
unapologetically unrefined music was probably unreleasable, but I also came
to love it more for being delicate as a slab of granite.”
I think Park missed something, for hidden amongst the power, energy, and
intensity, there is a delicate beauty that exists in all truly improvised
music.