Happy New Year, listeners!

We’re delighted to welcome 2019 (our 5th year!) with this immersive playlist of audiovisual recordings titled Waves of Consciousness.  These seven amazing works are deeply contemplative, thematically and aesthetically. When we titled the playlist, we contemplated the individual reflecting on various broader contexts, noting their consciousness of things beyond their immediate self, e.g. the environment, humanity and mortality.   The works feature small chamber music instrumentation that we felt reinforces a closeness and level of detail across the various themes explored. We love the opportunity to release video playlists that feature performance footage of the work, adding another layer of immersion and celebration of musical talent to this month’s listening experience. We hope you find this as enjoyable and thought-provoking as our growing Making Waves team has. Don’t forget to leave your words of support for these talented composers and musicians by visiting their profiles, following their sites, sharing their work and leaving a comment below.

YouTube

The ‘playlist’ button will bring up a track listing which you can use to skip back and forth between the works.  If you want to check out the playlist and works in more detail, there is a button at the bottom right of the picture taking you directly through to YouTube. Please be mindful that this is over an hour worth of video, and it will chew the data! If you were going to tune in on a mobile device without a large data allowance, please consider listening in over wi-fi instead.

Details

1. Kezia Yap, Coalesce
   for cello and percussion. Performed by Ensemble Offspring: Geoffrey Gartner (cello), Claire Edwardes (percussion).
2. Samantha Wolf, Want Not
   for flute, percussion, cello, piano. Performed by Rubiks Collective.
3. Peter McNamara, Distorted Waters
   for alto flute and cello. Performed by Dogen Kinowaki (flute), Tomoya Kikuchi (cello).
4. Marlene Radice, Sawdust, Bone, White Ash, & Silk
   for chamber ensemble. Performed by America Modern Ensemble: Sato Moughalian (flute), Tasha Warren (clarinet), Blair McMillen (piano), Esther Noh (violin), Dave Eggar (cello), Francisco Hernández Bolaños (conductor).
5. Chloe Hobbs, Spectrum
   for bass clarinet, cello and percussion. Performed by Ensemble Offspring: Jason Noble (bass clarinet), Blair Harris (cello), Alison Pratt (percussion).
6. Daniel Portelli, Memory Tape
   for trombone and cello. Performed by Stephen Menotti (trombone), Ellen Fallowfield (cello).

[Edit: one of the tracks on this playlist has been withdrawn from the curation since release.]

We’d love to hear about your listening experience! Share your thoughts or send messages of support to our featured composers and performers in the comment box below. We also encourage you to click through to YouTube to like, comment and subscribe to Making Waves as well as the composers, performers, and presenters featured.

The Waves of Consciousness playlist will be featured until 1 March 2019. All previous playlists from 2015 to present are available in our blog archives for the life of the project, so please do explore the website for previously featured sounds.