Nonsemble

Nonsemble

Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke

1pm • 21 March 2024 • Nickson Room

Livestream

Program

Go Way

Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke

| Prelude (90bpm) |

| Ia (144bpm) | Ib (96bpm) | Ic (144bpm) |

| IIa (105bpm) | IIb (75bpm) | IIc (105bpm) |

| IIIa (80bpm) | IIIb (100bpm) | IIIc (90bpm) |

| Postlude (60bpm) |

Nonsemble

Flora Wong and Samuel Andrews

Violins

Kieran Welch

Viola

Hannah Harley

Cello

Notes by composer

Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke is a 30 minute work using the moves of a 1953 championship game of Go as stimulus for harmonic, rhythmic and melodic material. It’s an experiment in extracting musical ideas from abstract patterns and sequences and allowing these ideas to develop intuitively into a large-scale work.

I’m drawn to the game of Go because it combines two of my major interests: Japanese culture and complexity that emerges from simple processes. Go is played on a grid with small black and white stones, and operates on simple rules

Cara Tran Piano

Libby Myers Guitars

Hik Sugimoto Drum kit/percussion

Libby Myers

Chris Perren

– basically, if your stones are surrounded by the enemy, they die. From this basic principle flows a great deal of complexity.

The compositional process was in two main phases: extracting musical ideas from the go game and intuitively developing those ideas.

Using the sequences, their positions, proximities and relative danger or safety of the moves, I cooked up systems to translate them pleasingly into rhythms, melodies or sequences of chords. From there I responded fairly intuitively to the

materials which had emerged in this process; allowing their character to dictate the direction. The ideas slowly grew outward in an organic process of pruning and elaboration.

The work exists in its final form as three movements, each in a kind of ternary form, surrounded by a prelude and postlude. The first and last sections of each main

Biography

Nonsemble inhabit a space between contemporary classical and adventurous pop music, resulting in a diverse output that ranges from sprawling and evocative modern compositions to meticulously crafted chamber-pop. Since forming in 2012, they’ve released two critically acclaimed albums and an EP, played alongside Sigur Ros and Beck at Harvest Festival, were invited to play and talk at TEDxBrisbane, and have toured across Australia, featuring performances at Tasmania’s MONA and Sydney’s City Recital Hall.

A septet consisting of piano, string quartet, drums and guitar (plus the occasional blast of electronics), the group’s musical backgrounds are as varied as their output: classically trained instrumentalists, seasoned rock players, and electronic tinkerers, whose musical interests range from obscure electronica and instrumental math-rock to early baroque music. This unique setup and blend of influences provides a wide palette of sounds. Olafur Arnalds-esque lushness meets Joanna Newsom jubilance, while the shimmering brightness of minimalist composers such as Steve Reich and John Adams rubs shoulders with the intensity of Godspeed You Black Emperor or 65daysofstatic. Nonsemble have a penchant for the rhythmically complex, but theirs is a music

movement are similar – sort of like variations of each other.

Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke was premiered in March 2014, at the first show in the post-genre concert series Dots+Loops. Today’s performance is part of 10th anniversary celebrations for both the piece, and the Dots+Loops concert series.

where the heart always wins—often in spite of heavy doses of heady conceptualism.

Over three albums and two EPs, they’ve earned a reputation for meticulously unified, yet viscerally compelling longform work. Debut LP Practical Mechanics, released on lofly records in 2012, distilled mid-century techno-optimism into a large-scale composition across 5 intricate movements. Their sophomore Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke was released in 2015 on London label bigo & twigetti—a 30-minute work constructed from patterns of moves from a 1953 game of Go, the album was hailed as “a monumental contemporary classic” by CutCommon. 2016’s Spaceship Earth EP, also on bigo & twigetti, saw the group side-step into the pop-song format, with five songs inspired by the failed modernism of the 20th century. Boasting guest vocals from prominent voices in Australia’s indie rock scene, the EP was described as “some of the most immediate and inviting indiepop I’ve heard this year” by 4ZZZ’s Chris Cobcroft. 2017’s “CULTS” had the band celebrate their most loved reworkings of Radiohead, Sufjan Stevens and more. More recently, the group have also been exploring a more electronically-driven 5-piece formation, resulting in their latest LP, 2022’s “Archaeopteryx”.

Upcoming Concerts

Briscoe Sisters

1pm, 28 March • Nickson Room

Juris Žvikovs and Sanita Glazenburga

1pm, 11 April • Nickson Room

Deline Briscoe, Robert Davidson and Sketch

1pm, 18 April • Nickson Room

More info

Yalanji trio Briscoe Sisters bring language and song to the stage, fusing gospel with their yalanji spirituality.

Livestream bit.ly/UQVirtualConcert28Mar24

More info

Latvian piano duo, Žvikovs and Glazenburga, present new works from the baroque period to the avant-garde era.

Livestream bit.ly/UQVirtualConcert11Apr

More info

Deline’s Wawu is performed by Sketch; a 20-year vision blending Yalanji traditions and modern ‘Rainforest Soul’.

Livestream bit.ly/UQVirtualConcert18Apr

The University of Queensland (UQ) acknowledges the Traditional Owners and their custodianship of the lands on which UQ operates. We pay our respects to their Ancestors and their descendants, who continue cultural and spiritual connections to Country. We recognise their valuable contributions to Australian and global society.