Making Waves is delighted to share this month’s playlist, String Quartet Waves!
As an ensemble, the string quartet has been codified such that is a genre unto itself. Perhaps this is due to its typical designation for the most intimate and considered of thoughts, from Beethoven to Shostakovich, and Schoenberg to Crumb. Yet despite its age, it is a genre that is ever contemporary. Championed by quartets such as Kronos Quartet and JACK Quartet, the genre is filled with brilliant new compositions.
In Australia, the string quartet has found another home, in the creations of Sculthorpe and Westlake, and in the work of ensembles such as the Australian String Quartet, Flinders Quartet and Acacia Quartet. As such we are excited to share a collection of contemporary Australian string quartets, filled with contrasting moods, energies and complexities. We hope you can sit back and enjoy this months playlist.

String Quartet Waves (March 2019)

Commissioned by the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) as part The ANAM Set 2024 and written for Aditya Bhat, with its world premiere during ANAM’s 2024 recital season at the Abbotsford Convent, Melbourne. 

The ANAM Set 2024 has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body and generously supported by the Anthony and Sharon Lee Foundation.

The ANAM Set 2024 was recorded in the Primrose Potter Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre by ABC Classic - Duncan Yardley, Producer and Alexander Stinson, Audio Engineer.

Aditya Bhat, percussion.

Victor Arul's 'Disconcerts Of Large Structures' performed by Aditya Bhat | The ANAM Set

Fish and Balloons (2024) - Duo XAMP

Source: "The Termite Song" (https://soodoonymm.bandcamp.com/album/tempura-reborn) 

This composition was made in part with the use of FluCoMa software (https://www.flucoma.org/download/). Thanks to all those who made FluCoMa!

Re_Thermosetting

Excerpts from Wire and Pine (2025).

Wire and Pine pays tribute to the small, homemade Celtic harp that was fashioned, without any plan or blueprint, by my grandfather. Guided only by his intuition and knack for woodworking, he created an instrument that fostered my love of harp folk music and ultimately set me on my future career path (albeit in an indirect way).

Made from the materials he had to hand - soft pine wood and fishing wire – the instrument can no longer be tuned; the hard metal tuning pegs (read: washers and bolts) having sunk into the pale wood. However, its musical life has taken on a new dimension in Wire and Pine.

One recent summer in my childhood garage (not the most pristine of recording conditions), I sampled each of the harp's strings, naming the pitches one by one as I plucked and recorded. These recorded notes - transformed, re-tuned and for the most part transported from the context of that dusty garage – comprise the backbone of this electroacoustic work, which aims to set free the music inherent in this beloved little instrument. Now and again, the sonic dust of the garage makes it into the tail of a harp note. The sounds cannot be clinically separated from their real-world context without losing some of their spirit.

The work moves from exploring its recognisable sound source to a dense and reverent sound world. The harp’s plucks and scratches are joined by a chorus of morose voices. Finally, fishing wire flies as the notes become unbound from any semblance of Western tuning.

Full track on Bandcamp. 

Listen in full

Wire and Pine - Part I

Armchair (2025) - catinblack ensemble

Underwater Toothpaste and Quantum Skateboard (2025) - Yarn/Wire

Too excited to share this special excerpt of Sensitive Instruments with performer, poet and chemist Geosmin Turpin. Performed live in July 2024 at Local Edition, Glebe.

Sensitive Instruments (Live at Local Edition, July 2024)

Volleyball (2025) - airborne extended

Commissioned by the Silo Collective and performed by the Enigma Quartet, this is my recording of the world premiere performance of my String Quartet, "The First Movement" on November 17, 2015. 

String Quartet: The First Movement [Live recording]

'The Fine Art of Conversation' (2015) for string quartet performed by the Huon Quartet.

More info and sheet music at: https://angusdavison.com/

'The Fine Art Of Conversation' for string quartet (2015)

14/08/2017 - Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, Australia
Performed as apart of ‘Scratching the Surface: A selection of works from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection’

Performed by:
Jennifer Barrington - Soprano
Shaun Lee-Chen - Violin I
Jasmine Middleton - Violin II
Rachel Hicks - Viola
Jeremy Garside - Violoncello
Conducted by: James Ledger.

Recipient of the Dorothy Ellen Ransom Prize for Music Composition - 2017

Stephen de Filippo's Album

Two Pieces - Soprano & String Quartet

What is 'space'? Where is 'nohwere'? How do we understand these concepts? How do we cultivate 'nowhere' and 'space'? These are questions that I considered when approaching this work. Into Ethereal Space responds to the exhibition title 'Nowhere=Space' by exploring contrasting peaceful, meditative sections and flurried rhythmic sections. This piece invites you to enter into a space of contrasts and to explore, contemplate and consider what 'nowhere' and 'space' might mean.

This piece was commissioned for the opening of 'Nowhere=Space' at 107 Projects. This is a live recording of the premiere performance, 11 July 2018.
Performed by Quart-Ed: Caitlin Sandiford, Sarah Qiu, David Tocknell and Karen Cortez.

July 2018.

Inside the Mosaic

Into Ethereal Space

3. You Cannot Be Serious

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.

Into Ethereal Space

Sophie Van Dijk - Composer

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