This month we’re so pleased to have another current Making Waves Intern, Mark Wolf @markwolfcomposer, guest-curate the playlist. About the Temporal theme, Mark writes:

    “Whether gripped by the unfolding drama of a new novel, or immersed in the onscreen action of an epic film, or even stimulated by listening to an engaging piece of music, have you ever enjoyed the experience of an effortless concentration so deep that you lose your sense of time?

    The works featured in this playlist all exhibit a paradoxical timeless quality. Each composition is connected with a temporal process, varying in nature from structured improvisation, ‘mobile moment form’ and slowly evolving spectrums of sound, all supporting temporal independence and ensemble freedom. Temporal manipulation is also observed through the exaggeration, expansion and fragmentation of musical time and events influenced by the natural world and architectural spatial design. These pieces are all in some way temporally ambiguous, successful in challenging the listeners’ perception of chronometric time.

The Making Waves team were especially delighted when Mark and Marlene touched base with their playlists to find that the music in both sets covered Space and Time!  Many thanks to Mark for his curatorial input this month: you can find out more about Mark here: https://makingwavesnewmusic.com/composers/mark-wolf/

Temporal Waves (July 2017)

End of year playlist from Making Waves:  this is a marathon collection of all Soundcloud tracks featured in playlists this year.  Your holiday listening sorted!

2017 Waves

Performed by Toni Berg and Akito Goto, Guildhall School of Music and Drama

they, who fly with wings of glass

Fluttertalks is scored for open instrumentation. Through a structured improvisatory style, it explores the inherency of communication and mutual collaboration in the natural world.

Recorded live 27/10/15
Flutes: Shaun Barlow, Henry Liang and Angus McPherson
Clarinets: Solomon Frank, Benjamin Samuels and Yinnie Yip

Fluttertalks

Responsibility

Sound streams Emerging Composers Workshop
Alliance Français, Toronto
April 2016
Soprano: Whitney Mather
Piano: Wesley Shen
Percussion: Daniel Morphy


WOLF, Mark - 'Without An Exit' (2016)

A response to the lives lost in Paris, November 2015. The piece attempts to portray the confused but overwhelmingly energised inner workings of a young, fanaticised mind and give form to their misshapen and distorted reality.

Works by playwright Wole Soyinka influenced my choice of perspective when approaching this topic. 

… the shadowy one, the waiter-stalker, a youth
 Fed on dreams of sarabands of houris
 Doe-eyed virgins, wine and sweetmeats in the afterlife 
But to his paradise, a key - the plunging knife. 

an excerpt from Samarkand
by Wole Soyinka

The Fanatic or I Am Right You Are Dead

Commissioned by Samantha Wolf for International Women's Day 2016 concert: This Will Be Our Reply. First performed on 7th March 2016 by Tamara Kohler, Gemma Tomlinson, Aaron Klein, & Adam McMillan.

There is usually more complexity on the inside than what is initially seen.

"On the Inside" explores the many aspects of identity throughout a woman’s life, from growth to complexity, (as opposed to innocence to uselessness). It rejects the idea that women are to be seen as objects only, that a woman’s value lies in her physical attributes and functionality to another. 

Musically, this piece started with a single small motif that is heard about a third of the way in, which I then grew and developed continuously. Despite rejecting external ideals, aspects that might be perceived as "beauty" have been retained because, like all characteristics, beauty is not something to be ashamed of or feared.

On The Inside

A compilation of multiple samples of my accordions broken at different times throughout the past year. Focusing on showing unaltered acoustic sounds. And majority of the samples were recorded a few minutes at a time of improvised passages.

I was not expecting these sounds to come out! :D

Severed Gizmo

Unravelling Graphite is a slowly evolving spectrum of sound. From the first sketches in late 2014 to finally having to stop myself from further editing in mid 2016, this piece has an unusual biographical nature, a ‘natural’ development resulting in material dictated by an accumulation 20 months worth of compositional whims. The outcome of this has been a work in which material is morphed and twisted, quickly collapses, slowly rebuilt, forevermore transformed. 
The accompanying image is a visual representation of the piece which I sketched during some frustrating days midway through composing.  

Unravelling Graphite was commissioned by the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University as part of the 2014 Silver Harris & Jeff Peck Composition Prize. 

Performed and premiered by the Kurilpa String Quartet (Graeme Jennings, Brendan Joyce, Yoko Okayasu, and Katherine Philp)

Unravelling Graphite (2014-2016)

[text by Rhys Nixon, composed && performed by Dan Thorpe].

going wild here on the footpath

a dog looked at me, walked away

going to buy a dog off amazon after getting something to eat

send pictures of dogs to strangers

no one sends any back

windows fogged up 

cant see inside

 

what am i doing between tabs i’m not looking at

another day, another empty mail box

no we don’t want to subscribe to your newsletter

no we are happy with our bandwidth 

no we don’t care about your coupons

no this letter isn’t meant for us


been waiting outside way too long

yes, it’s exactly what it looks like, more than one train approaching

walk down the street in pajamas, will people even look 

they glance and mutter

they really do need to subscribe

looks like their bandwidth is low

probably uses coupons

 

walking on footpaths, broken rubbish bag

empty milk bottles rolling into gutters

think of picking them up

we don’t, look at the bus drive past

everyone waiting

 

i can use this, open a store, sell my ideas

watches don’t tell the time, coffee tastes like water

inbuilt spelling mistake maker

automatic Facebook liker

app that answers the door

service that compares all the dogs in your area

white noise dream catcher

 

if i tackled a police officer would people stop me

or will the police officer step aside

consider this while waiting for a coffee

consider this while you exit the train station

consider that the police officer 

didn’t look at you

 

i walked into traffic and all the cars stopped politely, 

the drivers weren't watching me

if you were waiting for me

i’m sorry about that

it must be the water

can i get a drink

 

i’ll look at a sad picture and not feel the need to cry

until someone says ‘wow that made me cry a lot’

we’ll walk to the bank

take all our money

throw it on the road

watch cars drive over it

pick it up and deposit it again

 

don’t worry about it, honestly, 

i’ll make sure to stand up straighter

and meet up with friends

we’ll be the friendliest people

on the end of our street

in our complex

in our combined bank account

linked to our insurance company

 

bury my face in funny videos

don’t want to know anymore

turn the volume down here so i wont be noticed

give up sleeping

stay up every day

everything feels blue

we won’t be photographed

Considerate

Composed by Chloë Hobbs, recorded by Ensemble Offspring, 2016.

Delphic (2016)

What can we do, there's nothing to do,
about sickness and hunger and dying.
What can we do, there's nothing to do,
nothing but cursing and crying.

Find something to burn.
Let it go up in smoke.
burn your troubles away.

Sometimes it's witches or what will you choose?
Sometimes it's lunatics, shut them away.
It's blacks and it's women and often it's Jews.
We's all be quite happy if they'd go away.

Find something to burn.
Let it go up in smoke.
burn your troubles away.

The lyrics of Caryl Churchill from her play 'Vinegar Tom'. Performed and composed by ALPHAMALE (https://soundcloud.com/dad-dreams) and Marlene Claudine Radice. This piece premiered in COUP Canberra's 2016 production of Vinegar Tom.
http://www.agac.com.au/2016/12/the-musicians-of-vinegar-tom/

Cut Common interview with Hannah and Marlene: http://www.cutcommonmag.com/how-can-we-use-music-to-achieve-social-change/

WOLF, Mark - 'Without An Exit' (2016)

Mark Wolf Composer