Listen back to all the Soundcloud recordings featured during 2016 on Making Waves playlists.

2016 Waves

The inspiration for Stratus Rising came to me in early 2010 when my family and I stayed at a friend’s house in the Victorian alpine town of Warburton. The house sits on the slope of a big crescent hill, and one early morning I walked out onto the porch and witnessed something truly sublime: the green hill was covered in wispy strands of white clouds slowly climbing their way up the slope to return back to the sky. Moments after seeing this magical sight I sat at my friend’s piano and began writing this composition, though it was not until April 2011 that I finished the work. What I have tried to create here is a piece of music which embodies the dynamic nature of this vision and that region, one which is at times sublimely peaceful against the backdrop of its still, low-lying clouds, and at others equally tumultuous when these very same clouds turn into powerful storms.

Stratus Rising (2011)

This is from 2010 - commissioned and performed by Eclectica Trio (Amanda Lovelock, Anna Coleman and Charise Altmann).
The clarinets take on the role of storyteller for this piece – they growl like a wolf, squeal like a pig, and huff-and-puff with increasing vigour to blow the house down. Unfortunately, they do it all in the wrong language (“this contemporary music just sounds like random notes to me!”). Will you still be able to follow the story? Don’t stress, it all ends happily ever after.

The Three Little Pigs

Livemitschnitt UA am 21.03.2023 Video Oleg Michajlov

Ensembletrilogie

Newski Ensembletrilogie III - Memory (2023)

'The More I Think About It...' is my first foray into the world of sound art. This piece takes after the soundwalks of Hildegard Westerkamp, but adds a psychological and socio-cultural element by juxtaposing statements from a variety of sources (e.g news reports, interviews, panel discussions) against environmental sounds. The result is a soundwalk of both the environment and of the mind; specifically, the internal and external sounds a woman hears when she is walking home alone at night. In doing so, this piece seeks to expose the inherent flaws in the mainstream discussion around women's freedom of movement. 

The More I Think About It, The Bigger It Gets

String Quartet No. 2 in E minor by Connor D'Netto
recorded live @ MICMC 2015 - 18 Jul 2015

Winner of the Australian New Works Award, presented by Chamber Music Australia

Performed by the Noga Quartet, winner of the 7th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition

String Quartet No. 2 in E minor - live @ MICMC 2015

Minimalist saxophone quartet recorded at Melba Hall at the University of Melbourne. 
The Jive is a lively piece in three sections. It employs minimalist techniques such as canon, adding rhythmic cells, cross-fading, resulting patterns and mensuration canon. Some of these techniques are used more freely than in strict minimalism. I experimented with different canonic textures and the resulting patterns created when shifting motives between the different saxophones. Motives in rhythmic unison as well as cross-rhythms are explored in the last part of the piece. Dynamic swells and funky rhythms make The Jive somewhat unpredictable…

The Jive

I. Suddenly for soprano, flute, and piano (A. Mellos 2014)
Madeline Cain, soprano; Daniel Pesca, piano; Caroline Sonett, flute
Live recording, November 12, 2014 Kilbourn Hall, The Eastman School of Music


I. Suddenly from 'Three Poems of Yannis Ritsos' - for soprano, flute, and piano

For Alto Flute and Prepared Harp. Composed for Cochlea Duo for the 2016 soundSCAPE festival. Premiered and recorded by Cochlea Duo, 8th July 2016 in Maccagno, Italy. 
Performance notes: "I have recently become interested in exploring the relationship between music and the body. This includes exploring how physical phenomena can be expressed and understood sonically. Scintillation is inspired by my experience of scintillating scotomas, which almost always follow the same trajectory: a small shimmering light in my outer field of vision, which gradually spreads from left to right, forming dazzlingly detailed patterns before disintegrating into a thick haze of light and colour. The materials in Scintillation utilise the unique timbral and expressive qualities of the flute and harp to evoke these patterns, and the overall form of the piece vaguely follows the onset and progression of symptoms. Like other pieces inspired by the corporeal, the aim of this piece is to create something positive out of a painful, albeit fascinating personal experience."

Scintillation

dedicated to Peter Adriaansz

commissioned by the Shanghai Conservatory and Shanghai Symphony

recorded by David Yi and the Yale Philharmonia with the inimitable JX Yu singing.

Electronics by Patrick McMinn

Ascending for voice, orchestra, and sinewaves

James Hullick: guitar, voice, electronics
Nat Grant: drums, percussion, electronics

Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI

Halfway from Pluto

Passing

For 2 Violins, Viola and French Horn. performed by players from The University of Alaska, Fairbanks during the Fairbanks Summer Music Festival, AK July 2012

A Letter to the King of Norway 2012

for two flutes, percussion, piano
Music X, Blonay, Switzerland
July 2010
Timothy Munro and Pethrus Gardborn, flutes
Jeremy Malvin, percussion
Erika Dohi, piano

These dark notes drifting takes its title from a poem by 9th-century Chinese poet Li Po.  Inspired by a Chinese folk tune, the piece evokes distant flutes, coloured by the sounds that one might hear across a valley at night in the spring.

Spring Night in Lo-Yang hearing a flute
In what house, the jade flute that sends these dark notes drifting,
scattering on the spring wind that fills Lo-Yang?
Tonight if we should hear the willow-breaking song,
who could help but long for the gardens of home?

These dark notes drifting

Making Waves is a monthly series of curated playlists streaming one hour of quality, new composed music.  Founded in 2015, Making Waves shines a spotlight on the music of Australian composers. Fresh playlists are released on the first day of each month and older playlists are made available all year round via our archives; perfect for those with just a few minutes to explore one track or for hours perusing a myriad of diverse sound-worlds.


The project offers wider exposure to emerging composers, their music and the talented performers who champion it. We also provide an easy-to-access platform for listeners to sit back and enjoy a curated hour of exciting new music or explore our living composers more actively.  The playlist themes (and media through which they’re shared eg. Soundcloud, YouTube) evolve each month depending on the content received directly from our talented composers.

At its core Making Waves is a curated listening space. In 2016 we branched into producing our own content through a special project, Making Conversation, thanks to a successful crowdfunding campaign. Making Conversation: Australian Composers Project is a series of podcasts and vodcasts presenting the human side of living Australian composers, released on popular audiovisual and social platforms mid-2017.
Composers Lisa Cheney (Melbourne) and Peggy Polias (Sydney) are curating this project.

 Listeners, we encourage you to explore current and past playlists and discover more about our featured composers. 

Composers, we encourage you to send us links to your streamable audio via our website. Visit: www.makingwavesnewmusic.com for more information.

Composer and pianist from currently based in Berlin. Contact me at e.simic.prosic@gmail.com

Some longer projects and videos of performances can be found at my YouTube channel through the link below.

Stratus Rising (2011)

Eli Simic-Prosic

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