Upcoming shows

Get set for Nonstop 2 in December 2020, with our most exciting lineup ever dropping in early 2020...
​In the meantime, any interested artists can submit a proposal here before 20 January!

Past shows

Dots+Loops Nonstop
7 December 2019, upstairs at Newstead Brewing Co. Milton.

Dots+Loops fifth birthday party, Nonstop was a 6-hour celebration of Brisbane and Australia's most adventurous musicians and artists, spread across two stages. ​Viscerally captivating violinist Kyla Matsuura-Miller presented Max Richter's “Vivaldi Recomposed” alongside some of the country’s most exciting emerging artists. Bang on a Can’s Ken Thomson lead Louis Andriessen’s virtuosic dance-party “Hoketus” and Kate Moore's "Fatal Strangers", following a set of his own works with the Black Square Quartet. Composer-pianist Erik Griswold and filmmaker Louise Curham altered and expanded the old technologies of the traditional grand piano and super 8 film in “Yokohoma Flowers”, a fragile and intimate work for prepared piano and live projections of hand-treated film.

As night fell and the room filled, the festival steadily moved towards an “afterparty” set of local post-genre club-focused acts, such as LÂLKA and DJ Airport.
Meanwhile, the second stage shone the spotlight on some of Australia’s most exciting new bands and curators, with a stage takeover from Brisbane Music Festival featuring curator-performer Alex Raineri, mesmerising cello loops from Rob Knaggs, folktronica meeting classical with Sage, Briar String Quartet and Flowerhead. And three of Brisbane’s most adventurous post-genre musicians joining forces for the first time in Figbird, presenting a brand new work by Brenda Gifford commissioned for the group by Dots+Loops.

Read more about the festival at dotsandloops.com.au/nonstop19
Dots+Loops Presents: Flora Wong and Kieran Welch
27 October 2019, Bib'n'Brace Collective.

Dots+Loops presents the solo projects of Flora Wong and Kieran Welch in a double-bill feast of contemporary music for violin and viola at Bib'n'Brace Collective, an intimate creative space in Teneriffe.

Flora Wong's Geburtstag celebrates the tenth birthday of her Helge Grawert violin with four newly commissioned works from four Australian composers: Connor D’Netto, MJ O’Neill, Chris Perren and Kezia Yap.

Kieran Welch presents the live premiere of his debut album and concert experience A Missing Moon, a genre-transcending journey beginning with solo viola, then traversing through loops and live electronics, before culminating in an hour-long “afterparty” set from his DJ alter-ego Airport. The live set comprises of world premieres from Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Tilman Robinson, Ailie Robertson, and music by Connor D'Netto and LÂLKA written specially for the album.
Dots+Loops Feedback
27 September 2019, upstairs at Newstead Brewing Co. Milton.

A captivating multisensory experience, Dots+Loops Feedback surrounded the cavernous abandoned office space above Newstead Brewing Co. Milton with old CRT television sets, immersing the audiences in a unique retro-futuristic alternative reality.

Groundbreaking American live electronics and violin virtuoso ​Todd Reynolds​ starred in his first Australian performance, accompanied by live visuals from VJ ​Slato​; and Melbourne-based ​Rubiks Collective​ co-headlined with ​Marcus Fjellström’​s quirky and engrossing cross between a video game, movie and live musical performance, "Odboy and Erordog". Brisbane's ​Helge Quartet​ presented the Australian premiere of ​Pamela Z's mixed reality string quartet "Attention", and the live performances concluded with a brand new work written for the concert by Brisbane audiovisual composer ​Chris Perren​. The evening concluded in proper Dots+Loops style with an in-venue afterparty, featuring DJ ​Luke Cuerel​ presenting a set of music leading on from the rest of the show.

Feedback offered a sublime balance of artistic innovation and inviting, engaging audience experiences. If one were ever pressed to showcase the unique charm and potential of Brisbane’s creative community in one event, Feedback would do nicely.​ — MJ O'Neill for Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane
Dots+Loops Conviction
28 June 2019, Upstairs at Newstead Brewing Co. Milton.

Mesmerising post-minimalism, medieval chant and live electronics, all tied together with uniquely organic live visuals... Dots+Loops Conviction presented a vividly emotional deconstruction of belief in the 21st century.

Violinist Courtenay Cleary presented the Australian premiere of David Lang's mesmerisingly virtuosic Mystery Sonatas, alongside custom live visuals by Team Animal Spirits. Lotte Betts-Dean sang a specially curated set of music from pioneering medieval composer and christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen. And the live performances flowed into a live ambient audiovisual "remix" of the concert by ​Tilman Robinson​, providing a backdrop for performers, composers and audience members to chat and mingle.

[Conviction] was some of the bravest and [most] innovative programming I’ve seen recently [...] A tour de force for both performers and audience, the level of focus in the room was tangible.
— Daniel Lopez, Rue Arts
Dots+Loops Liminality
5-6 October 2018, Rosina at Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne
12-13 October 2018, Cupo, Brisbane

A uniquely captivating two-day festival held in both Melbourne and Brisbane, Liminality saw cutting-edge international talent joining with some of Australia's most exciting performers. Highlights included Elliott Hughes, Tilman Robinson, Allison Wright and Team Animal Spirits presenting the world premiere of the immersive live multidisciplinary experience "Augmented Trumpet"; saxophonist Tom Sanderman presenting the world premiere of his sophomore artist album; and the Australian premiere of Kate Moore's electric quartet Fatal Strangers. 
The festival also featured numerous free community workshops curated by Megan Steller, and a unique performance fellowship program supporting Australia's next generation of adventurous artists.
Dots+Loops Synthesis
16 March 2018, Cupo
​
A synthesis of genres and artistic disciplines (as well as including a healthy amount of actual synthesisers), Synthesis featured genre-defying music by Nico Muhly, Sufjan Stevens, and a premiere from Melbourne’s Allison Wright; American violist Anne Lanzilotti journeying through sound and perception with live visuals by Slato, and the Southern Cross Soloists Next-Gen Artists performing a premiere set of immersive audiovisual works by Chris Perren.
Dots+Loops 2017
Compassion, 29 April 2017 | Compulsion, 19 May 2017 | Companions, 8-9 September 2017.
Read more about our 2017 series here.
Dots+Loops Recomposed
2 July 2016, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA)

Dots+Loops Recomposed featured Max Richter's "Vivaldi Recomposed" performed for the first time in Brisbane using its original instrumentation, acclaimed indie-chamber group Nonsemble performing the world premiere of Chris Perren's "Fibreglass Forestry", and closed with a DJ set flowing on from the rest of the concert. Co-presented by QAGOMA, the night took place in the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art's stunning River Room, featuring panoramic views across the Brisbane river and cityscape.

"A feast for the senses [...] Kyla Matsuura-Miller gave a stunning performance, not only playing with poise and drama as the soloist, but visibly leading the band to mesmerising synchronicity [...] There were several moments where irrepressible delight broke out from the tight rhythms and lush harmonies onto the faces of performers and audience alike. A fantastic show..." — Kate Byrne for Scenestr

"Dots+Loops Recomposed was truly unique [...] Everything about it from start to finish was awe-inspiring and I don’t even know where to begin to explain how much I enjoyed this concert." — Nahima Kern for The Creative Issue
Dots+Loops Delay
26 February 2016, Cupo

Dots+Loops: Delay presented an intimate, engaging and conceptually tight program of music for viola, delay and electronics. Featuring Kieran Welch on viola, along with a number of special guests, the concert featured the world premiere of Chris Perren's "A Missing Moon", as well as Australian premieres of music by Michael Gordon, Missy Mazzoli and Nico Muhly.

"[Dots+Loops Delay] represented the fulfilment of an artist’s imagination, a celebration of the viola sound, technique and repertoire [combined] with mastery encompassing all performing characteristics..." — Raquel Bastos

"The program was inspired, showing the versatility and expressive capacity of the viola in [contemporary] music..." — Patrick Murphy
Dots+Loops 5x4
12 December 2015, Cupo

Three groups of four musicians each, performing five captivating contemporary pieces. Dots+Loops 5x4 presented Australian premieres of Missy Mazzoli's "Harp and Altar" and Pulitzer prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw's "Entr'acte", alongside lauded works from local composers Connor D'Netto and Maja Puseljic, and a rare performance of the hypnotic post-genre masterpiece "Amid the Noise" by So Percussion and Jason Treuting.

"With a broad range of local and international composers, and a focus on cutting-edge, post-genre work, Dots+Loops is emerging as a vibrant new player on the Brisbane music circuit [...] If the series can continue forwards with the nous, talent and dynamism it has shown [tonight], it will go on to play a vital role in Brisbane’s cultural scene." — Madeleine Dale for The Creative Issue
Dots+Loops Radio Rewrite
​20 March 2015, The Triffid

Held in the stunningly renewed airport hangar at The Triffid, Dots+Loops Radio Rewrite saw indie-chamber outfit Nonsemble joined by a host of talented local musicians to perform Steve Reich's Radiohead-inspired "Radio Rewrite". The night also featured Armas Quartet presenting the Australian premieres of Bryce Dessner's "Aheym" and "Little Blue Something" to critical acclaim, as well as "Landscape" for quartet and guitar by local composer Robert Davidson, and closed with a DJ set from Airport conceptually following on from the rest of the program.

"Dots+Loops is the latest hip attempt to bridge the gap between art and the mainstream; to find that happy medium between the musicianship of high classical and the laid-back coolness of contemporary indie, pop and even dance music. And Dots+Loops succeeds." — Andrew Messenger for CutCommon
Dots+Loops Tape
12 December 2014, Contortionist Studios

Australian premieres of Missy Mazzoli's "Tooth and Nail" and Nico Muhly's "Études for Viola", as well as Steve Reich's "Different Trains", and a DJ set from Chris Perren (Software of Seagulls), held in the laid-back warehouse space at Contortionist Studios.
Dots+Loops Drones
​3 July 2014, SYC Studios

Dots+Loops Drones presented the Australian premiere of Nico Muhly's "Drones" cycle, accompanied by hypnotic live visuals from Chris Perren, and featuring internationally recognised musicians Sam Mitchell on piano, Courtenay Cleary on violin, Kieran Welch on viola, and Ben Heim on live electronics. Sydney Symphony's Julia Doukakis featured as solo violist in the Australian premiere of Judd Greenstein's "In Teaching Others We Teach Ourselves", and Nonsemble Trio opened the concert with the world premiere of Chris Perren's "Winterstate".
Dots+Loops (From the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor)
22 March 2014, SYC Studios

The first concert in the Dots+Loops series was based around the concept "from the concert hall to the dance floor". Held in a converted warehouse space in Brisbane's Woolloongabba, the show began at the concert hall end of the spectrum with Armas Quartet performing Philip Glass' incandescent post-minimalist masterpiece, String Quartet No. 5. Covering the territory in between, Nonsemble premiered their second major work "Go Seigen vs. Fujisawa Kuranosuke", which went on to see them sign to London label Bigo & Twigetti. Finally, the night closed with DJ Airport presenting a set of contemporary electronic and dance music, focusing on music indebted to or influenced by modern and contemporary western art music.