ABC Jazz is excited to announce the release of I Wrote A Song For Her, For Me, the debut album by Jayden Blockley. This is gorgeous, old-school music-making – a quintet of friends collaborating to create something new and pure.One of Australia’s rising jazz stars, Blockley was the winner of the 2018 Generations in Jazz James Morrison Jazz Scholarship. In recording this album, he gathered an incredible group of musicians from all over Australia to create their unique sound. Recorded with the ABC’s Mal Stanley in Melbourne in July 2019, this is the sound of a mature and exciting young songwriter and group leader emerging before our eyes.Jayden writes, “There is liberation and reward to expressing your feelings into a creative process, whatever form it may take. Being creative is such an undervalued quality of our humanity, and the creative process wasn’t something that I appreciated until embarking on this project. I didn’t consider myself much of a writer before this record and writing music wasn’t something that felt entirely natural to me, but it’s been the single most rewarding experiences of my musical journey. I’ve come to realise that even if there was nothing in the world to dedicate my songs to, I’d still write them because it’s the process of creating something meaningful to me that I cherish so much, hence the title I Wrote A Song For Her, For Me.Many of my tunes are inspired by my experiences growing up in Perth and the subsequent struggles and homesickness after moving away to study. Bao was written for my mum when I was feeling particularly homesick one day in Mount Gambier. It’s become an unofficial tradition for us to make dumplings together every time I come back home. I grew up on a road calledDarwinia Loop, so Darwinia is a tribute to some of my close friends and neighbours who I share fond memories growing up with. I didn’t originally intend for the album to be about my home in Perth, but it’s what I'm reminded of every time I hear it, so for me, this record is also a tribute to all the things I love about the home I grew up in.Assembling the musicians on the record was like putting together my dream team of people I really wanted to play with. When planning for the project, I considered recording in Sydney and in Perth, but eventually decided Melbourne was the best option simply based on my vision for the personnel.Will Pethick and I grew up playing together and have lived together for a few years whilst studying in Mount Gambier. We’ve developed a trust and great understanding of each other’s phrasing and sound, which worked perfectly for the amount of rubato writing that I did. He knew exactly how and where I wanted to place the notes. Theo Carbo has been someone I’ve wanted to play with ever since I met him. He brings such a vibrant palette of sounds and textures, which really brought my songs to life. I’d played with Patty Danao for a few years through uni and heard him play many times with James Morrison’s band. Patty has such a deep sense of groove and plays with a sensitivity that I knew would be perfect in this band. Sam Anning, as well as being the ultimate bass player, was one of my compositional inspirations. He was immediately onboard with my vision for this music, but also helped take it to places I couldn’t have imagined at first.All the players on this album have such a unique musical voice and they each get such a beautiful sound out of their respective instruments. Although the music I wrote was mostly fleshed out before I brought it in, they gave it so much life. They each left their own creative mark on the record.” TRACKLISTING1. Bao 7’562. Subconsious-Lee (Lee Konitz) 8’283. I Wrote A Song For Her, For Me 5’044. Song For A Better Day 8’455. When Will The Blues Leave? (Ornette Coleman) 7’276. Darwinia 6’007. The Straight And Narrow 9’398. An Ode To The Optimists 10’34 Jayden Blockley – saxophoneWill Pethick – tromboneTheo Carbo – guitarSam Anning – bassPatrick Danao – drums

ABC Music is thrilled to announce the release of ‘Beautiful World’, the new album by Frances Madden.One of the classiest entertainers Australia has produced in years, Frances has been described as ‘Australia’s rising star of jazz, blues and ballads’ by Sydney radio station Fine Music 102.5, and as ‘one to watch’ by ABC Jazz’s very own Mal Stanley.Beautiful World brings together a combination of jazz infused melodies entwined with some memorable pop hooks and occasional hints of gospel: from the hypnotic and seductive ‘The Tango Never Lies’ or the pulsating Latin rhythms of ‘Dancing in the Street’, to the emotive and soul stirring ‘Side by Side’. Set within a landscape of luscious arrangements, Frances delivers performances that are heartfelt, engaging and captivating. Her songs are filled with stories and lyrics that are at times inspiring and uplifting, while at other moments delightfully whimsical and playful.The title track ‘Beautiful World’ is likely to be a favourite at radio. Noteworthy too, is that Frances gives a nod to the late, great Peter Allen with her own arrangement and rendition of ‘I Go to Rio’.Frances plays to full houses at leading jazz venues and festivals around Australia. She has supported touring international artists including Dionne Warwick and Grammy-Award winner Gregory Porter as well as headlining at the acclaimed JZ Club in Shanghai. Her self-released first album If this were a dream went to #5 on the ARIA Jazz Charts.1. Beautiful World 3’222. Paris Melody 3’303. You’re Doing So Well 4’284. Side by Side 4’115. The Tango Never Lies 3’366. Dancing in the Street 3’327. Practical Magic 2’588. I Go to Rio 3’019. Sunday 3’1510. The One Who Walks Me Home 5’19Frances Madden vocals, piano, Hammond C3, keyboardCarl Dewhurst guitarsPhil Stack double bassTim Firth drumsHarriett Allcroft backing vocalsIan Cooper stringsKarl Laskowski tenor saxophoneRay Cassar trumpet

Multi award winning vocalist Jasmine Rae has announced her new album ‘Lion Side’ will be released on July 24th. The brutally honest songwriter and electrifying live performer has also released the video to her current single ‘Green Light’.‘Lion Side’ is a culmination of several years of soul searching, rigorous and often tortuous self-assessment, indecision and the need to find greater inner-purpose and direction. Ultimately, Jasmine Rae has rediscovered that her true path to self-enlightenment is through her music.“I took a long time to make this album, but ultimately I simply had to do it,”says Jasmine Rae.“Music has always been my way of thinking out loud and figuring things out. Writing and performing allows me to express those feelings… to be dramatic… be loud or be fragile… be emotional… and be real.” Recorded in both Sydney and Nashville with producer Lindsey Jackson (Jessica Mauboy, Tori Kelly, The McClymonts), Lion Side comes from an artist who is an inspiration to everyone around her, while often wounded, angry and fragile. In fact, she would even go as far as saying ‘Fraudulent’ at times.  The album’s current single ‘Green Light’,which is being embraced by both pop and country formats, reflects Jasmine’s battles with anxiety and indecision. “There are always opportunities: The opportunity to take action, or to purposefully let something go; to make a call or leave things unsaid; to change or try again or try differently,” says Jasmine Rae of the song. “No decision – is a decision in itself. This song is the inner dialogue of one of those experiences. These are some of the circling thoughts of doubt and indecision that drive me crazy.”Also available today is a second album release track with album pre-orders, ‘Carrying The Flame’. The song is a tribute to Jasmine Rae’s greatest mentor, and the friend who is now carrying on his legacy, while creating his own. “Being real is a superpower. It’s what heals us together.”It’s the mantra behind Jasmine Rae’s album Lion Side, which will be released on July 24, 2020

Multi Award Winning Country Music Artist Adam Brand is back with his new album, Speed Of Life.  Already labelled by critics as “his best and most positive work yet”.Produced by Luke Wooten (Dierks Bentley & Brad Paisley), the new studio album succinctly reassures fans that Adam is in a good place in life, following his record breaking “Milestones” tour in 2018 and the birth of his first child, a baby girl, last year. A relaxed Brand sings of life, love and laughter on Speed of Life.“The whole experience of making this album was a vastly different experience to all the other albums I’ve done in the last 20 years. It was a calm and stress free process and I put that down to the place in life I’m at. I felt no pressure in putting this album together… no urgency to find that big hit song… to be honest I let my heart guide me this time, and my heart was full of the wonderful notion of my baby girl who was about to be born. I whole heartedly believe she gave me that calmness and clarity in knowing what I wanted to sing about this time around." Says Adam.The new single ‘Fly’ is also released today and is a song that Adam describes as a prayer you want to give someone you love. The video was shot in the Nashville studio of Grammy Award winner producer Luke Wooten while Adam was there recording the song, as well as in Australia. A stellar career that shows no signs of slowing down with Adam nominated for multiple ARIA Awards, win 12 Golden Guitars, sell over half a million CDs & DVDs, as well as earn 3 x Platinum &  5 x Gold albums.Adam is scheduled to perform on CMC Rocks next week and Big Country Festival in May.Speed of Life is an example of how Brand continues to deliver as one of the modern giants of Australian Country Music. It seems that life really has been good to Adam Brand.Tracklisting:1. Speed of Life2. Life’s Been Good To Me3. Fly4. Messin’ Up A Good Thing5. Freakin’ Weekend6. Just A Love Song7. Baby I Miss You8. You Are Not Alone9. Don’t Wanna Let You Down10. Time Of Our Lives

Iconic Australian band Custard makes a welcome return in 2020 with their eighth studio album, ‘Respect All Lifeforms’, set for release on Friday May 22 via ABC Music. The album kicks off with lead single, the irresistible nationwide lockdown hit, ‘Funky Again’ - a catchy pop offering that mentions the Russian winter of Operation Barbarossa AND home renovations in one convenient 3-minute package.The accompanying video, directed by long-time Custard collaborator, ARIA Award winning Andrew Lancaster, skillfully combines the band’s three true loves - Jacobean architecture, social distancing, and late 70s New York funk.Custard circa 2020 features the classic line-up of David McCormack, Glenn Thompson, Paul Medew and Matthew Strong. Originally formed in Brisbane in 1990, Custard released a series of classic guitar pop albums over the next decade, including Wisenheimer, We Have the Technology and Loverama. The band developed a cult following, touring extensively across Australia and abroad, as well as producing a parade of unforgettable singles, including ‘Apartment’ and ‘Girls Like That (Don’t Go For Guys Like Us)’.After disbanding at the end of the 1990’s, the band returned in 2015 with new album Come Back All Is Forgiven, which was followed by 2017’s The Common Touch.In more recent times, frontman David McCormack has found a new legion of fans as the voice of Dad ‘Bandit’ in the smash hit ABC Kids series Bluey, which has quickly become the most watched program in iView history, with 21.3 million views to date.‘Respect All Lifeforms’ Track list:1. Couple’s Fight2. Funky Again3. Harlequin Records4. A Cat Called No5. Wishing6. Take the Skinheads Bowling7. The Min Min Lights8. Talkative Town9. Like People10. Watcha Waiting For11. Come Tuesday

For her 20th studio album, Katie Noonan takes listeners back to where it all began – the iconic pop songs of the 1980s that first ignited her passion for music.From pooling pocket money with her brother to buy the first Crowded House album, to having her mind blown by the incredible video clips of a-ha and 1927, to dancing around in stonewash denim singing Whitney Houston, Billy Joel and Cyndi Lauper songs into a hairbrush mike, these are the singers and the songs that inspired her to pursue a career in music – a career that has seen her named one of the greatest Australian singers of all time by the Herald Sun, with five ARIA Awards from 25 nominations across a number of diverse genres.On this album Katie is joined by four of the finest jazz musicians in Australia – Zac Hurren (saxophones), Sam Keevers (piano), Phil Stack (double bass) and Evan Mannell (drums) – all fellow babies of the 1970s who grew up with this music as their earliest influences.They put new jazz spins on these classic tunes that reveal just how good the songwriting was, despite the occasional daggy synth effect or over-the-top production. Terence Trent D'Arby’s smash hit ‘Sign Your Name’ is reimagined as a sultry late-night groove, while Whitney Houston’s ‘I Wanna Dance With Somebody’ is transformed into a piano ballad that exposes the heartache and longing at the core of what has long been a party-starter.‘Electric Blue’ by Icehouse is given an irresistible cha cha makeover, while ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over’ and ‘True Colors’ are stripped right back to their bare bones, with Katie’s extraordinary voice taking centre-stage and delivering performances of these songs as raw and moving as you have ever heard them.This is a joyous and heartfelt album, full of surprising and delightful takes on beloved classics. It’s an album for that small part of us that is forever leaping around our bedrooms, singing along to the radio, and gazing adoringly at the posters of pop stars on our walls – even if nowadays that’s a more accurate description of our children than ourselves!TRACKLISTING 1 Don’t Dream It’s Over2 Blue3 If I Could4 Just The Way You Are5 True Colors6 Electric Blue7 I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)8 When Tomorrow Comes9 Russians10 Sign Your Name11 Take On Me12 Running To Stand Still Katie Noonan: VoiceZac Hurren: Tenor and soprano saxophonesSam Keevers: PianoPhil Stack: Double bassEvan Mannell: Drums, cymbals and percussion

ABC Jazz is thrilled to announce the re-release of Lush Life: A Tribute to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn by The George Golla Orchestra, timed to celebrate George’s 85th birthday in May 2020. One of the iconic records in the history of Australian jazz, Lush Life has been unavailable in any format for a number of years.Lush Life holds a significant place in Australian music history as the winner of Best Jazz Album at the inaugural ARIA Awards in 1987, and features a Who’s Who of performers including John Hoffman on flugelhorn, Craig Scott on bass, Len Barnard on drums, James Morrison on trombone and George himself on guitar, and produced by the great Cleon Dennis.Lush Life is a tribute to the extraordinary professional and personal relationship between two greats of American jazz – Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Their creative partnership lasted 25 years, and led to an enormous catalogue of works that have become cornerstones of the genre, including ‘Don’t Get Around Much Any More’, ‘Take The A Train’, ‘Mood Indigo’ and ‘It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’, all of which feature here.In the original liner notes for the album, George writes, ‘One nice thing about reaching maturity is the knowledge that one has accumulated a vast backlog of experience, both pleasant and otherwise. In the garden marked ‘pleasant’ lies a bed of wonderful music heard and experienced down the years, a great proportion of which was created by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, two long-term collaborators of magical ability in the idioms of jazz. When long-time friend and producer Cleon Dennis suggested I record some of their best tunes, I was naturally overjoyed as I’d spend years playing much of the material in various settings. I felt comfortable and sure that I could do justice to the spirit (as much as I perceived of it) of the Duke and Billy. They were men who lived their full lives in urban society, sophisticated yet warm, full of humour and wit. Their music is a perfect vehicle for the gentle side of jazz.’We hope you enjoy getting to know this gorgeous record all over again.

‘This is your one chance. You have your secret dreams. Follow them! Make them come true!’Using words and music, The Peasant Prince tells the inspiring story of Li Cunxin, better known as ‘Mao’s Last Dancer’: his childhood and his journey to become one of the world’s greatest ballet dancers.With music by composer Katy Abbott setting the scene, Li tells his life’s story in eight episodes over half an hour - from his humble beginnings in rural China to his triumphs as principal ballet dancer of the Houston Ballet. It is a story that will inspire the young and the young-at-heart, with reflections on a family living in hardship, inspiring teachers, and the joy of finding that one thing that you love most in the world.Based on Li’s best-selling memoir Mao’s Last Dancer and children’s book The Peasant Prince, this is a heart-warming tale for anyone who ever dared to dream.The Peasant Prince is being released in three different versions. A CD, which contains two versions of the work – one narrated in English and one narrated in Chinese. And the English and Chinese versions are being released individually on digital and streaming platforms.TRACKLISTINGEnglish version/Mandarin version1 Introduction 9 序章 (Introduction)2 Kite Themes –Hopes and Wishes 10 风筝——希望与心愿 (Kite Themes – Hopes and Wishes)3 Frog in the Well 11 井里的蛙 (Frog in the Well)4 Home and School 12 家里，学校 (Home and School)5 Leaving Home, Arriving Beijing 13 离家到北京 (Leaving Home, Arriving Beijing)6 By the Light of a Single Candle 14 烛光之中 (By the Light of a Single Candle)7 USA 15 美国 (USA)8 Dance of My Life 16 一生最重要的舞蹈 (Dance of My Life)

Strong Cotton Socks is a trio made up of James Macaulay on trombone, Flora Carbo on winds, and Merinda Dias-Jayasinha on vocals.The band came together quite spontaneously and collaboratively. Inspired by Dias-Jayasinha’s performance at a late-night jam session at the Jazzlab following the Melbourne Jazz Festival, Macaulay sent her a sketch for a chorale. The following day Dias-Jayasinha responded with lyrics for it, prompting them to organise a jam and inviting mutual friend, Flora Carbo, along. It worked so well that Strong Cotton Socks was born, making their debut at the Jazzlab in early 2019.Playing arrangements of original repertoire, Strong Cotton Socks collaborate to bring words and music together in a chamber-like setting with space to breathe, pause and to improvise. From through-composed arrangements of songs and shorter set pieces, to longer works featuring more improvisation, everyone contributed arrangements in a very natural, collaborative process.TRACKLISTING1. Transposed 1’422. Sleep Through 3’003. Falling Towards You: I 3’244. Falling Towards You: II 1’485. Falling Towards You: III 3’416. Lately 4’037. Dreams of Tokyo 7’218. Stroop 4’449. Flowers Away 2’3610. Flordrey 3’06Strong Cotton SocksJames Macauley – tromboneFlora Carbo – saxophoneMerinda Dias-Jayasinha – vocals

ABC Jazz is excited to announce the release of To Iceland, To Iceland!, the new album by Antelodic.Antelodic is an instrumental chamber jazz trio featuring the unusual combination of guitar with two saxophones. The woodwinds - Gideon Brazil (tenor saxophone) and Monty Mackenzie (alto saxophone) - often perform the role of rhythm section, allowing the guitar (Robbie Melville, winner of the Instrumental Category of the 2018 International Songwriting Competition) to become the melodic voice.Formed in 2012, the trio have developed a highly nuanced approach to their creative practice that allows them to experiment in the moment while maintaining a unified ensemble sound. The music combines meticulously arranged, densely notated compositions with moments of improvisation and sound sculpting, reaching beyond the traditions of both classical and jazz to create a style very much of its own.Individually, the musicians have worked with artists as diverse as Gotye, Krystle Warren, Shane Howard, Vince Jones, Orchestra Victoria, Tim Rogers and Stephen Magnusson, and collectively they have worked for over 17 years in Melville’s band cleverhorse. Antelodic performed at the 2018 Wangaratta Festival of Jazz & Blues, Inverloch Jazz Festival, throughout regional Victoria and has recently returned from performances in the UK.Following on from their debut album Quiet Sufficient in 2017, the trio headed into ABC Melbourne’s Studio 345 in the closing weeks of 2018 to record To Iceland! To Iceland!. A considered, mature,honest and deeply personal collection of Melville’s compositions, To Iceland! To Iceland! celebrates life, and honours those we have lost along the way.“There was a great deal of synchronicity involved in the development of this album,” says Melville. “On the day I wrote the track To Iceland!, I went to the music shop I worked in and heard some music playing over the stereo system. It was a haunting, slow choral piece, and caught my ear straight away. It turned out to be an Icelandic hymn called Heyr Himna Smiður. I found it so moving that I instantly decided to arrange it for Antelodic. When I returned home later, my wife opened the door holding a book of the Icelandic Sagas which she had just bought for me that day, thinking I might find them interesting. I couldn’t ignore all of those signs.“As I composed the rest of the album, I imagined sailing to Iceland across the seas, framed as a metaphorical journey – impossibly arduous, boundless and unending. We have spent so much time in Antelodic striving for better performances, better arrangements, a deeper connection with each other and with audiences. We never get to a point where we’re completely satisfied, but that’s positive. It means we’re still learning, improving and searching, still on the journey.”Several pieces on the album, including the title track, are anagrams of the trio’s name. The album’s opening anthem, No Dialect, and two other short pieces, No Citadel and No Idle Act are three distinct arrangements of the same song. The Last Word and Dog Days were written to honour the memory of Melville’s friend Michael Dragwidge, who died suddenly at the end of 2017.The joyful Djamba Germaine uses several overdubs to augment the usual sound of the trio, adding electric guitars and baritone saxophone. Sombrero Fallout is an ethereal piece inspired by a Richard Brautigan novel, constantly shifting between major and minor harmony.On To Iceland! Melville swaps the classical guitar for a high-tuned steel string, resulting in some surprising voicings. Heyr Himna Smiður makes use of an electric baritone guitar to create a darker texture, while the woodwinds mimic the vocal phrases of the hymn’s lyrics, written by warrior chieftain Kolbeinn Tumason on his deathbed in 1208.Tango in Pusan was written on a balcony in South Korea, drunk on gin one summer afternoon, and features the playful group interaction that is more prevalent in their recent live shows. Gone is a gentle memorial to Melville’s grandmother. The pensive mood of Blue Tongue Bend, 1988 is a nostalgic look back at Melville’s youth. TRACKLISTING 1. No Dialect 2’012. The Last Word 6’213. Djamba Germaine 4’504. Sombrero Fallout 4’265. To Iceland 1’246. Heyr Himna Smiður 5’557. Tango In Pusan 4’238. Dog Days 6’029. Gone 4’0010. No Citadel 2’0111. Blue Tongue Bend, 1988 5’2812. No Idle Act 0’59Robbie Melville guitarsGideon Brazil tenor & baritone saxophoneMonty Mackenzie alto saxophone

ABC Jazz presents Kiri, an exquisite and ravishing new album from Australian trumpeter Niran Dasika and Japanese pianist Sumire Kuribayashi.Recorded live at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz in 2018, Kiri captures two exciting young artists utterly in synch with each other, demonstrating the sort of chemistry that only comes from a deep musical connection.Dasika met Kuribayashi met in Tokyo in 2015, shortly after he moved to Japan, and over the following years they played together in various combinations. Says Dasika, “As with all good musical collaborations it started from an unlikely chance meeting and was sustained by a combination of friendship and shared musical vision.”The compositions on this album are inspired by the ‘nihonga’ paintings of renowned Japanese author and painter Kaii Higashiyama, which occupy a special place in Dasika and Kuribayashi’s relationship.“When I moved back to Australia at the end of 2017,” Dasika recalls, “Sumire gave me a book of Higashiyama prints as a parting gift. This book remained open on my piano music stand in Perth for about three months, during which I would sporadically open to a page that caught my interest and improvise, playing the piano and singing melodies, until it started to sound like how the painting feltto me. I don’t consider myself at all knowledgeable about art, but Higashiyama’s paintings seem to me, with only some simple colours and geometric shapes, to really capture the feeling of being in nature.“The first sketch I wrote was for the painting ‘Kiri’ (Mist) which forms the cover artwork for the album. ‘Kiri’ depicts just a few tree trunks fading into the distance, but there’s something about the textures that conveys the feeling of cool, damp mist on my skin. ’Evening Tide’ shows a shoreline at night with barely anything visible yet I can hear the sounds of the waves crashing unseen on the shore.”Most of the compositions on the album fill no more than a single page when written out, but such is the connection between these two that these outlines can become over ten minutes of music in a performance.“Both Sumire and I approach improvising in this project from a very compositional angle. By playing together over several years we’ve been able to develop enough trust and mutual understanding that we anticipate each other’s reactions and can create longer spontaneous forms in the moment.”Born in Canada and raised in Melbourne with Indian and German heritage, Niran Dasika is a trumpeter gaining increasing attention around Australia and abroad for his distinctive, ethereal trumpet sound and compositions. Niran’s virtuosic trumpet playing has placed him in high demand both in Australia and in Japan, where he spent some years performing and recording on albums from Blue Note Records, Sony Music, Diskunion Records and more. Awarded 2nd place at the 2017 National Jazz Awards, in 2019 Niran was the recipient of the APRA AMCOS Professional Development Award and the Jazz Bell Awards Young Australian Jazz Artist of the Year, in addition to being nominated for the Freedman Jazz Fellowship.Sumire Kuribayashi is a Japanese pianist and composer gaining increasing renown within Japan and overseas. She has performed with Japanese jazz legends Hino Terumasa, Hideaki Kanazawa, Naoko Terai and has released four critically acclaimed albums under her own name. Jazzconvention.net said of Sumire, ”Belonging to the young generation of Japanese jazz scene, Kuribayashi has become in the last few years one of the most appreciated pianists both for her noteworthy creative qualities and the remarkable storytelling that crosses the textures of her music.”TRACKLISTING1. Kiri (Mist) 11’572. Seikyou (Green Echoes) 7’133. Wildflower / Iku Haru (Passing Spring) 12’464. Hana Akari (Bright Cherry Blossoms) 7’155. Bochou (Evening Tide) 9’576. Spring Hymn 5’08Niran Dasika trumpetSumire Kuribayashi piano

Building on the success of our first Women of Note album last year, ABC Classic is thrilled to be releasing the second volume in our now annual celebration of Australia’s female composers.This 2CD album, released in time for International Women’s Day (8 March), begins with music from pioneers of Australia’s musical heritage: Margaret Sutherland, Miriam Hyde, Dulcie Holland, and introducing Linda Phillips, whose work as a critic and as chief adjudicator of the prestigious Sun Aria competition across three decades helped to shape this country’s musical landscape, but whose compositions – prized by such artists as Dame Joan Sutherland – have been unjustly neglected in Australia’s recorded music catalogue. Her quartet Exaltation, a swirling mixture of melancholy and exuberance, shows the composer exploring the musical legacy of her family’s Jewish background.Five other world premiere recordings feature on the album. Multiple award-winning composer Mary Finsterer is represented by a live concert recording of her double bass concerto Lake Ice, an exploration of music as storytelling and as journey, guided by the beautiful yet rarely heard sonorities of the bass as solo instrument. From Miriama Young we have a re-imagination of the historical soundworld of Sydney Harbour in Time and Tide, blending field recordings ancient and modern with brass and percussion instruments. We are also delighted to be presenting the first commercial recording of music by rising star Ella Macens: her soaring orchestral work The Space Between Stars.The other two world premiere recordings are by Indigenous Australian composers. From Yorta Yorta woman, opera singer, composer and educator Deborah Cheetham comes Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace: a powerful and poignant response to the resistance war fought by the Gunditjmara people in southwest Victoria and to the troubled spirits of all who fell in those battles, on both sides. And Yuwaalaraay composer Nardi Simpson gives us Wilga’s Last Dance, honouring the only traditional melody from her people that was ever recorded.Moya Henderson takes us to the Tasmanian wilderness with her transcendent string quartet Kudikynah Cave, evoking moments of ecstatic stillness during the raft journey to the cave’s entrance, along the Franklin River. Katia Tiutiunnik draws inspiration from the moment a mother first feels her baby move inside her womb for her flute and piano duet The Quickening. Katy Abbott, always alert to the quirks and foibles of humanexistence, applies wit and humour to the multiple meanings of the word Punch in a work for brass ensemble. Amanda Cole marries marimba and cowbells in her energetic percussion solo Glocken Blocken. Rachel Bruerville (Dancing on Tiptoes) and Natalie Nicolas (We Won’t Let You Down) worked with teenagers in hospital mental health wards to create music of joy and profound optimism. And Elena Kats-Chernin’s beloved Eliza Aria is presented in its original version for quizzical soprano solo over delicately plucked stringsTRACKLISTINGCD 1DULCIE HOLLAND 1913–2000 Sonata for violin and piano 1 I. Quasi recitativo – Andante – Vivo 2 II. Slow and somewhat rubato 3 III. AllegroAsmira Woodward-Page violin, Scott Davie pianoLINDA PHILLIPS 1899–2002 4 Exaltation (Chassidic Air and Dance)*Anne Gilby oboe, Isin Cakmakcioglu violin, Rachel Atkinson cello, Robert Chamberlain piano LIVE RECORDINGMIRIAM HYDE 1913–2005 5 Village FairSydney Symphony Orchestra, Dobbs Franks conductorMARGARET SUTHERLAND 1897–1984 6 Haunted HillsMelbourne Symphony Orchestra, John Hopkins conductorMOYA HENDERSON born 1941 7 Kudikynah CaveAcacia QuartetKATIA TIUTIUNNIK born 1967 8 The QuickeningLaura Chislett flute, Stephanie McCallum pianoELENA KATS-CHERNIN born 1957 9 Eliza Aria from Wild Swans – Concert SuiteJane Sheldon soprano, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Ola Rudner conductorCD2KATY ABBOTT born 1971 1 PunchBrass ensembleMARY FINSTERER born 1962 2 Lake Ice: Missed Tales No. 1*Kees Boersma double bass, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Jessica Cottis conductor LIVE RECORDINGAMANDA COLE born 1979 3 Glocken BlockenClaire Edwardes marimba and Almglocken (cowbells)MIRIAMA YOUNG born 1975 4 Time and Tide*2018 Sydney Symphony FellowsRACHEL BRUERVILLE born 1991 5 Dancing on TiptoesACO CollectiveNATALIE NICOLAS born 1992 6 We Won’t Let You DownACO CollectiveELLA MACENS born 1991 7 The Space Between Stars*Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Jessica Cottis conductor LIVE RECORDINGDEBORAH CHEETHAM born 1964 Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace* – excerpts 8 IV. Kooyeen-wanoong (Liber scriptus) 9 V. Tyookooyong-ee (Agnus Dei)Libretto by Deborah Cheetham, translated into Gunditjmara dialects by Gunditjmara language custodian Vicki Couzens and linguist Travers Eira.Deborah Cheetham soprano (Yorta Yorta), Linda Barcan mezzo-soprano, Don Bemrose baritone (Gungarri), Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus, The Consort of Melbourne, Dhungala Children’s Choir, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Benjamin Northey conductor LIVE RECORDINGNARDI SIMPSON born 1975 10 Wilga’s Last Dance*Royal Australian Navy Band* World premiere recording