BY MARK BOSCH
In early July, Onszembal Ensmbel performed five works at Ensemble Offspring’s Hatched Academy Open Mic – many of which relied on unconventional methods of making sound: stones, smoke alarms, and cauliflowers.
Always spelled differently and always pronounced the same, Onsbmeoleb Ensemble is a real shapeshifter; a kaleidoscopic possibility space for young improvisers and composers.
A “testing ground” for conflict-driven, often stylistically incongruent music, their name seems to suggest a rupture between the senses: one hears ‘Ensemble Ensemble’, yet reads something more or less unpronounceable like ‘Osnzbemeble Esnbmelble’. This, like the breakdown of genres or categories of human meaning-making observed in polystylism, is part of a broader context of ever-increasing fractiousness in an ever-increasingly interconnected world.
We speak to Solomon Frank, one of the ensemble’s members, about embracing fracture and contradiction in our (sound)worlds, and how this approach relates to institutional traditions in music and the world at large.
So, Solly. Onsombel Ensemble. Awnsawmble Ensemble. Oznmebwlemel Ensemble. Its members seem to share an artistic affinity, but also a philosophical and, perhaps, political one. How did the ensemble form? Was it little more than happenstance, or did you assemble with a clear-cut artistic intention or project in mind?
Our political and artistic philosophy is summed up in our name – the endless performative possibilities of an ensemble; an amorphous band of performers whose personal tastes and visions are allowed to clash and explode outside of and within the music.
The group started simply as a composer collective. Frustrated by the lack of opportunities we had to play our instruments, a bunch of first-year composition students and performers banded together to play each other’s music. That was four years ago.
Initially, we were concerned mostly with notated music but as our artistic palette expanded, our focus became more on open form works and improvisation. It’s been an organic growth, and our exposure to the other groups and individuals operating within the scene has pushed and pulled our aesthetic and philosophy in new directions.
There has never been a clear-cut vision, which is a vision in itself – a way of making sure there is never a personalised agenda.
The ensemble describes itself as “proudly un-googleable”. I can’t help but feel that there is a significant undertow to this statement. Elaborate on what “proudly un-googleable” means to you.
The group features a shifting array of performers and our online presence reflects that. Personally, I like the idea of confusing all the nefarious social media companies that want to box an idea in, making it a commodity; a commercial profile.
In Josephine Macken’s words, the name ‘alludes to a kind of identity pluralism, confronting the cleanliness of categorisations that exist in virtual spaces’.
On September 5, the ensemble will be opening The Sounds Unsound #19. Give us a sneak peek into how the ensemble goes about preparing for a gig like this.
Improvisation seems to be more about the long game than frantic last-minute rehearsal processes. Our improvisational practice forms organically as we become accustomed to each other socially and artistically.
With a gig like this one where we will freely improvise, I would say every encounter with an ensemble member since the group formed has been preparation for this gig. It’s about building trust between performers, which seems essential in a performative context where there are so many unknowable variables, but also trusting that your fellow performers will embrace the social and artistic divisions that exist between us.
Just 48 hours after The Sounds Unsound #19, it’ll be time for something completely different. Future Archaeology: Musical Impetuses from Future Timelines takes place on Friday evening but reaches far, far into the future for its material. First things first: tell us the story behind the event, and about the experience of receiving emails from the future.
This concert is sort of my fourth–year composition recital, but instead of pieces that I wrote, they’re pieces and musical instructions that I’ve received in emails from different points in the future.
Art music is often construed as useless and esoteric, so these pieces are decidedly utilitarian; obscure musical and performative acts that translate to real-world outcomes and agendas in the future. They often comment on the obsolescence of art whilst using art as a means of direct communication.
Ensemble Onsombl is performing an improvised set entitled Ensomble Onsmenble Future Fan Service. We received an email from some super fans in the year 2047 and the set on Friday will be dedicated to them.
At one point during the concert, Ensemble Onsombl will also be usurped by a horde of sentient smoke alarms. The rest of the program will feature members of the ensemble, including a solo double bass piece written for Will Hansen (under instructions from political protesters and hackers in the year 2787), and a sextet piece written by an artificial intelligence program, designed to make art, from 2118.
Looking forward to the future is an act of speculation, but we can easily forget that looking back into history is almost equally as speculative. We often see classical musicians fetishising history, relying on questionable historical evidence to inform anything from ‘historical performance’ to the facts portrayed within program notes. Tell us about Unzszubmelebe Ensemble’s relationship to this strange thing called the ‘Western canon’, and why you value the future.
Ensemble Onsombl is entirely aware of our roots in the Western canon, and the instruments we use are products of this timeline. Ensemble Onsombl is a departure from the acts of preservation that preoccupy many classical musicians. Where I see us diverging is in our approach to the ritual of performance and a dissolution of the singular ownership of compositions. We perform works where human agency is a variable that is allowed to run wild; ensemble members are conscious agents within the creative process.
I wouldn’t necessarily say our music is of the future at all; its very much of the present, relating to ideas and practices that exist in the world at the moment. The spirit of exploration, which we embrace, has been present throughout all musical cultures across all times. So, in that regard, we draw much influence from the past.
See Ensemble Onsemble perform at The Sounds Unsound Presents #19, The Hideaway Bar, 6.30pm September 5; and Future Archaeology: Musical Impetuses from Future Timelines, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, 7pm September 7. Follow Onsemble Enzombal on Bandcamp (you’ll never find the name on Facebook).
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Images supplied. Credit: Ollie Miller (Backstage Music Sound Light Geometries August 2018).
