Written by: Emily Wurramara
So when you hear the likes of Baker Boy, Alice Skye or Thelma Plum, behold the ancient wisdom and strength from thousands of ancestors. This is more than “entertainment”, this is Healing.
Written by: Jo Caust
Who gets what in the arts has long been topic of much debate. There are myriad issues round elitism, regional distribution, excellence, artforms, organisations versus individuals and so on. Some of this is generated by an unequal allocation of funding…
Written by: Justin O'Connor
This essay, begun during the 2020 lockdown in Victoria, grew out of a growing (and widely shared) frustration at the Federal Government’s apparent willingness to let the arts and cultural sector, especially live performance, go to the wall. Rather than…
Through a large easterly facing window overlooking the zoo, the spring sun streams on to my face. I live on the 5th floor, in the roof of a historical building. Many birds come to visit my window curious about what…
Written by: Mandy Stefanakis
Imagine if …
The ‘othering’ of Australian female composers is soooo yesteryear.
Musicians stand up for humanity and compassion for people who have escaped brutality and put themselves in our care.
Didgeridoo player William Barton has received the Australia Council’s very prestigious Don Banks Award. Discover his remarkable music, his history and much more.
The municipal council has a music plan that should invigorate and promote Port Phillip and inspire others.
Written by: Barbara Lewis, Supantha Mukherjee
To enable the experience of performing together live, online, when performers are apart, is difficult because there is a lag between a sound being produced and being hears, known as latency. The article describes a collective research effort to reduce the lag.
The Global Music Vault is dedicated to safeguarding the world’s music of yesterday and today, forever.
Written by: Elliott Schwarz. (Pictured above)
Seven thoughts on how to get more our of listening to music.
Written by: Helen Champion
Readers are invited to contribute your ideas to a revision of the national Australian Curriculum: The Arts, and especially, of course, the music curriculum.
Written by: Phil Slater
“‘The Dark Pattern’ is by far the most consistently sublime and intensely beautiful music I’ve ever heard”, wrote reviewer Jo Cummins of Slater’s recording. In this article, Slater reveals important aspects of the highly original process that has been his musical life’s work over the last five years.
Written by: UK Department of Education
In the UK, the government is introducing music education for every child that in most schools in Australia would be a fantasy.
Author: Editors: Teresa Balough and Kay Dreyfus
Category: Musicology, Technology
Melbourne, Australia: Lyrebird Press, 2020. 199 pp.
ISBN: 9780734037947 (e-book available)
Reviewed by Elaine Lewis
‘… Percy was trying to break away from the established ways of doing things, from the halftone scale, from the regularities of established music, [that] he was in fact searching for something new.’ Burnett Cross, ‘Free Music’ (c.1978)
Author: Tana Douglas
Category: Memoir
Sydney: ABC Books 2021. 352pp.
ISBN 9780733340901
Reviewed by David Mayocchi
“A pioneering woman in the music touring industry lets us inside the fun and challenges of life behind the amplifiers.”
Artist/s: Australia Piano Quartet - Kristian Winther (violin), James Wannan (viola), Thomas Rann (cello), Daniel de Borah (piano)
Category: Classical, New Music
Label: Navona Records NV6235
https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6235/
Reviewed by Hugh Robertson
A superb recording of works by a composer that deserves to be better known, and an ensemble deserving of greater profile.
Artist/s: Delay 45. Tom Avgenicos (trumpet), Roshan Kumarage (piano), Dave Quinn (bass), Ashley Stoneham (drums)
Category: Jazz
Label: Static Records
Reviewed by Gavin Franklin
“The four members of Delay 45 have developed an approach to performing that is creative and individual…”
Artist/s: Australian World Orchestra (cond. Alexander Briger), Kees Boersma, Timpothy Dunin, Alex Harvey, Max McBride, Kirsty McCahon, Maththew McDonald, Robert Nairn, Caro Vigilante (double basses), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (cond. Bram Tovey), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (cond. Benjamin Northey), Claire Edwards (percussion), Jane Sheldon (soprano), Ironwood String Quartet, Lorelei Dowling (bassoon), Elena Kats-Chernin (piano), Amelia Farrugia (soprano), Luminescence Chamber Singers, Tamara-Anna Cislowska (piano), Guy Noble (narrator), Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (cond. David Stanhope), Stephanie McCallum (piano).
Category: Classical, New Music
Label: ABC Classics 481 6430 (2017) - 10 CD Box Set. Reviewed in three parts by Michael Hannan
Reviewed by Michael Hannan
“Further evidence of Elena Kats-Chernin’s impressive career can be found on the last three CDs of her 10-CD Collection. Although all the works presented are drawn from previously unreleased recordings, dating back up to twenty years, a high level of composition, performance and sound quality is maintained throughout.”
Artist/s: Leider. Rishin Singh (trombone & music & lyrics), Annie Gårlid (viola & voice), Derek Shirley (cello & percussion) and Stine Sterne (flute & voice)
Category: Avant Pop, Contemporary, New Music
Label: Beacon Sound. LP and digital.
https://beaconsound.bandcamp.com/album/a-fog-like-liars-loving
Reviewed by Joseph Cummins
It is certainly a very beautiful album, and also very addictive. A Fog Like Liars Loving is a first collection of what I hope will be much more music from Rishin Singh and Leider.
Artist/s: You Am I. Tim Rogers (guitars/vocals), Davey Lane (guitars/vocals), Andy Kent (bass), Russell Hopkinson (drums)
Category: Contemporary, Rock
Label: Caroline (Universal), to be released on May 14
Reviewed by Noel Mengel
“Nothing about The Lives of Others sounds remote. It feels like they are all together in a room, inspired, excited.”
Artist/s: Tinalley String Quartet. Adam Chalabi and Lerida Delbridge (violins), Justin Williams (viola), Patrick Murphy (cello)
Category: Classical
Label: ABC 0028948554959 (digital release)
CD purchase: https://www.abcmusic.com.au/discography/mendelssohn-string-quartets-tinalley-string-quartet
Reviewed by Philip Pogson
“The Tinalley Quartet rise to an astonishing level of engagement, taking extraordinary risks to deliver a truly memorable recording of a composer at the height of his powers.”
Artist/s: Paul Cutlan String Project. Paul Cutlan (bass clarinet/clarinet/soprano sax), Lisa Pallandi, Caroline Hopson (violins), James Eccles (viola), Oliver Miller (cello), Brett Hirst (double bass), Gary Daley (piano), Tunji Beier (cajon/kanjira/kannakol).
Category: Jazz
Label: Earshift Music Ear043. CD, booklet
Reviewed by Chris Cody
“This is a really enjoyable album of original writing for clarinet and saxophone, strings, piano and percussion, that ranges from joyous life-affirming pieces to a meditation on war, death, frailty and ultimately, peace.”
Artist/s: Morgan England-Jones (soprano), Acacia Quartet: Lisa Stewart (violin), Myee Clohessy (violin), Stefan Duwe (viola), Anna Martin-Scrase (cello)
Category: Art Songs, Classical, New Music
Label: ABC Digital Album ABC 0028948556892
Reviewed by Inge Southcott
“The compelling story of colonial destruction, then the rediscovery and preservation of Australian night parrots, long thought to be extinct, inspired this attractive song cycle composed by Jessica Wells. It celebrates the fact that when disparate interest groups put aside their differences and work together, such precious creatures may be saved…”
Artist/s: Alex Raineri (piano), Matthew Connell (narrator), Jak Scanlon (video composition)
Category: Filmed performance
Reviewed by Stephen Mould
A very fruitful ‘collaboration’ to present Richard Strauss’s telling of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s tale, focussing upon ‘storytelling, imagination and music’. It incorporates new elements to redefine the old, and hopefully will inspire others to consider how this work might be reinvented in the 21st century.
Artist/s: Composers: Anne Cawrse, Caewen Martin, Nardia Simpson, Holly Harrison, Katia Beaugeais, Elena Kats-Chernin, Fiona Loader. Performers include Riley Lee, Benaud Trio, Amir Farid, ACO Collective, Ewen and Lachlan Bramble from Adelaide Symphony, Enigma Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, Morgan England-Jones, Acacia String Quartet, Genevieve Lacey
Category: Art Songs, Classical, New Music
Label: Digital, ABC Classic. Available through all digital platforms
Reviewed by Mandy Stefanakis
“Treat yourself to a feast of music on this superbly heterogeneous album, representing the voices of some of the best of Australia’s contemporary composers.”