The concept for this playlist came from the idea of the human relationships that underpin all creative practices. How we interact with one another is the foundation of live performance and inherent to the process of creating new music. This month’s playlist was curated by Making Waves team member Marlēné Claudine Radice @marlene-claudine-pringle-radice 

The pieces featured in this month’s playlist explicitly highlight what it means to to relate to ones humanity through music. Whether it be through the physical body such as Caerwen Martin’s exploration of the relationship between mother and child or Mark Holdsworth’s musical depictions of Frida Kahlo’s self portraits.

A fundamental part pf human relationships and identity stems from our ability to act and think autonomously. The notion of what it means to be an autonomous individual is examined by Rishin Singh and Sophie Van Dijk. Both pieces by these composers explore how individuals react to one another in various situations, how the human and an individual can shape and mould their performance.

Aaron Pelle and Antonia Zappia’s works depict a subtler aspect of the humanity inherent to music composition, the ideas expressed though emotion and how these ideas form, reform and collapse into each other. These ideas are extended further in Joseph Tabua’s work as he depicts our relationship between what it means to be human and how we as humans relate to the idea of consciousness within our creations.

Take some time to delve into adventure, art, the self and robots.

Enjoy!

Human Waves (October 2018)

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

This is the 2nd movement of a work written for my mother's 80th birthday, this work explores the complex relationships between mother and child.

The Beauty Of Now Movt 2 Mix 1

In​/​Her​/​Him​/​Raining​/​Phosphorous​/​Gardens - for 7 Spatialised Flutes

First performance on May the 9th, 2017 in the Barr Smith Library Reading Room as part of the New Sounds for an Old Room Vol. 3 Concert.

Performers:

Flute - Madeleine Stewart
Oboe - Hannah Kovilpillai
Bb Clarinet - Eric Begley
F Horn - Natalie Williams
Bassoon - Chris Buckley

Copyright Aaron Pelle (c) 2017

Kindred Spirits

The Robot was inspired by English writer and philosopher Colin Wilson. Interestingly, Wilson’s oeuvre explores the heights and depths of consciousness. "The robot is a servant, a valet. A type of servant who does things for you. So you learn something like talking French, driving a car or skiing, painfully and consciously, step by step. Then the robot takes it over and does it far more quickly and efficiently than you could do it consciously. However, the important thing is not to interfere with the robot once he has learned it because you'll completely screw him up if you do. Now the problem is the robot does all these valuable things like talking French and so on for us. The trouble is that he also does the things we do not want him to do."

The Robot (For Colin Wilson)by Joseph Tabua (2018)

"Towards Adventure" is a 'choose-your-own-adventure' style structured improvisation. Performers make their own way through the piece by following different paths. One leads to a pit of spiders while the other leads to a crystal cave. The goal for this piece was to give performers the freedom to respond to one another, and to explore how sound travels through the performance space.

This is a live recording of the premiere of the arrangement at 'Aftersound' at the Verge Gallery, 2 June 2018.
Performed by Marcus Whale, Rainbow Chan, Isabella Fiorentino and Oscar Saran.

June 2018.

Towards Adventure

Towards Adventure | Saxophone Quartet

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.

Towards Adventure | Saxophone Quartet

Sophie Van Dijk - Composer

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