SLAMCD528 Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park, Ian Smith plus Lol Coxhill – Mathilde 253

Mathilde 253 is the real-time musical meeting between legendary avant-rock drummer Charles Hayward (This Heat, Massacre), “careful and crafty” guitarist Han-earl Park (Paul Dunmall, Kato Hideki), and mainstay of the London improvised music scene Ian Smith (Derek Bailey, London Improvisers’ Orchestra).

Mathilde 253 was born out of an opportunity to explore the spontaneous mashup of avant-rock, European free improvisation and noise. Joined by the veteran iconoclastic saxophonist Lol Coxhill, this recording documents the weaving of physical virtuosity and humorous sound poetics, a patchwork of restraint, subtlety and recklessness.

Charles Hayward: drums, percussion and melodica
Han-earl Park: guitar
Ian Smith: trumpet and flugelhorn
Lol Coxhill: saxophone (tracks 6 and 7)

“Park uses pedals to smudge and smear chords or rolls out strange robotic grumblings, a technician playing the electricity as much as the guitar. Smith has a high, taut attack, like a more tuneful version of Donald Ayler’s pure energy. And Hayward – despite a penchant for tight grooves – makes a good fist of playing free…Veteran Improv saxophonist Lol Coxhill rounds it out to a quartet for two tunes, making this a very satisfying debut.” – Daniel Spicer, Jazzwise

“Riveting in its scope and cohesion, this seven-track slice of Free Improv captures the sounds made one night at a London club by an ad-hoc assemblage of players, who ordinarily may not have been expected to jell so effectively. Ostensible draw is Avant-Rock percussionist Charles Hayward, who over the years has not only been part of bands such as This Heat and Massacre, but also improvised with the likes of soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill, bassist Hugh Hopper and composer Heiner Goebbels. Most of this gig at Café OTO pairs him with trumpeter and flugelhornist Ian Smith, a mainstay of the London Improvisers’ Orchestra, who traded Dublin for the British capital years ago; and sharp-witted, Cork-based guitarist Han-earl Park, who has played with saxman Paul Dunmall among others. Coxhill himself adds his idiosyncratic saxophone delivery to the trio on the final two tracks…A textbook example of high-class improvising.” – Ken Waxman, JazzWord

“Hayward has a very distinct sense of time underneath the freedom. It’s not untypical of British free drummers to imply some kind of steady pulse. Eddie Prévost does it, John Stevens did it far more often than anyone supposed, Tonys Oxley and Levin almost always do. I’d have picked Hayward out as a Brit even if there had been no accompanying details. This is an exciting new venture for him and for the others. One can reasonably expect unexpected things from Park, who is a delightful shape-shifter and Smith always repays the closest attention, and claims it with sudden open-horn breakouts if the fabric of the music gets too smooth and uninflected. Great stuff and a disc that reassert’s Slam’s importance as a free music imprint.” – Brian Morton, Moment’s Notice

“The playing here is very fine, a tightly woven mass of sounds with no one real dominating voice but each musician expressive and energetic. The music is all about the conversation, but a real heart-on-the-sleeve collision course of a conversation, but nevertheless the result of the musicians listening to one another and responding. The addition of Coxhill’s softer soprano on the last two pieces do slow the music a little, but the jazz credentials remain.” – Richard Pinnell, The Watchful Ear

Tracks 1 to 5 composed by Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith
Tracks 6 and 7 composed by Lol Coxhill, Charles Hayward, Han-earl Park and Ian Smith

Recorded live at Cafe OTO, London on 18 April 2010
Recorded and mixed by Chris Trent
Mastered by Han-earl Park

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