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DEBUT ALBUM FROM TODDLER-FRIENDLY INDIE-POP BAND FEAT. MEMBERS OF LEMONHEADS, SMUDGE & MORE! ABC KIDS' newest music superstars The Sticker Club are a group that echo the bubblegum pop of late 60s cartoon bands like The Archies and Bananas Splits, mixed with the indie-rock pedigree of the band’s members Nic Dalton (Lemonheads, Plunderers), Alison Galloway (Smudge), Nellie Afford (Agnes Kain), Ben Whitten (Intercontinental Playboys) and Dizzi Cassidy (The Argon Room, Faker). The band’s debut album Scratch ‘n’ Sniff is released today through ABC KIDS & Half A Cow. The Sticker Club formed in 2012 when Nic realised he had written a whole stack of songs for his toddlers and should put a “kids” band together, so he asked his friends Alison and Ben, who had daughters the same age as his. Ben, Alison and Nic’s daughters were initially in the band (singing, dancing and playing trombone, flute and clarinet) but the three girls quit (“we don’t want to be in a kid’s band”) and were replaced by Dizzi on the bass. The band liked the sound that trombone, flute and clarinet created, so charts were written by Jenna Cave for five of the songs for the album, played by top-shelf Sydney jazz musicians. The band describe themselves as “a bit different to other kids’ bands because we’ve got the double wah-wah guitars and we’re quite rock and roll - kind of like 60s garage meets Don Spencer.” The first song Nic wrote for the band was ‘(Can You Do) The Peanut’, written on a family camping holiday down the New South Wales south coast. A female lead singer was required so in stepped Nellie, who also supplied one of the Sticker Club’s most treasured songs “Caterpillar”. Nic started recording Scratch ‘n’ Sniff in 2014 ... before the birth of three babies got in the way! The album was completed and mixed recorded by famed producer Tim Kevin (Holly Throsby, Youth Group) at Tempe River Studio in Marrickville. Sixteen songs in all: from the bubblegum pop of ‘Darcy’ and ‘New School Tomorrow’ to the toddler- friendly ‘Can You Hear The Doggie?’ and ‘Kissiasaurus’ with some psychedelic rock thrown in courtesy of ‘(Doin’) The Echo’ and ‘Magic Flower Power Hour’. The band perform regularly at the It’s A Family Affair concert series at Sydney’s Petersham Bowling Club, and have gathered a loyal fanbase after talk-of-the-town appearances at the Dress Up Attack Festival, Summer Hill School, Yeo Park Infants fetes, and the Inner West Music Festival.
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ABC KIDS Hits is a fun new compilation album for the little ones to enjoy these holidays.Featuring songs from all your ABC KIDS favourites including Justine Clarke, The Wiggles, Play School, Giggle and Hoot and more. ABC KIDS Hits is jam-packed with 38 wonderful tunes that children will love singing and dancing along to throughout the summer.
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ABC KIDS has brought together some of Australia’s best-loved and most popular Christmas tunes, creating the ultimate holiday music collection for kids. Featuring a beautiful mix of traditional Christmas carols such as ‘Deck The Halls’ and ‘Sleigh Ride’, Aussie classics including ‘Christmas Where The Gum Trees Grow’ and ‘Six White Boomers’, and a smattering yuletide tunes from Bananas In Pyjamas, The Wiggles, Jay Laga’aia, Sesame Street, and many more beloved ABC KIDS favourites.
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Celtic and Gaelic Sacred MelodiesCatherine Strutt piano with special guest Chris Duncan Scottish fiddleThere is a quality in the music of the Celtic and Gaelic people that touches something deep inside us. It could be the home-spun folk rhythms that speak of good times with close friends. It could be the sound of a people who have been defined by dispossession, a sense of yearning for a homeland that can never be theirs. Or perhaps it is purely musical, a tradition whose core notes resound with the sound of the human spirit.Catherine Struttexplores these themes on her new album No Wind at the Window. The tracks range from well-known pieces like ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Abide With Me’ and ‘Morning Has Broken’, to obscure tunes from a small Gaelic hymnbook from 1935, called simply An Laoidheadair (The Hymnal), given to Catherine by a friend as she embarked on this incredibly personal journey.“For as long I can remember,” says Catherine, “My mother has played the harmonium at the local Anglican church. It was there that I encountered the great tunes of the Welsh and English hymn writers, and from this first early exposure, the hymns tunes have been stored deep inside my memory, and never forgotten.”Catherine is considered to be one of the finest piano players of traditional Scottish dance music in the world today. She is well respected as an innovative and sensitive natural dance and concert musician and is a grapheme synaesthete, an individual who experiences numbers and letters in colour.Using this phenomenon as a tool, Catherine plays and records entirely by ear. Her intuitive sense of rhythm and colour are incomparable and she continues to be an inspiration, teacher and mentor to many of Australia’s Scottish-style pianists. TRACKLISTING1 All Through the Night (Ar hyd y nos)2 I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (Kingsfold)3 How Are Thy Servants Blest, O Lord (Kilmarnock)4 No Wind at the Window (Columcille)5 There Is Sweet Rejoicing on the Hill of Paradise (Bearnaraidh) / Sion Sings with Sheer Sweetness (Sion)6 Oh, This is the Story That Will Gladden My Heart (So an sgeul)7 Lord, Hear My Praying (Lara)8 Country Carol (The Oxen)9 God Is Love, Let Heaven Adore Him (Abbot’s Leigh)10 Morning Has Broken (Bunessan)11 Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise (Llanfair)12 O Crucified Redeemer (Llangloffan)13 Christ Be My Leader by Night as by Day (Bonnie George Campbell)14 Abide with Me (Eventide)15 Sussex Carol16 Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (Blaenwern)17 Precious Is Your Grace to Us (Tigh-an-Easa)18 God of Jeremiah (Kelvin Grove)19 Amazing Grace (New Britain)20 O for a Closer Walk with God (Caithness) Catherine Strutt piano with special guest Chris Duncan Scottish fiddle(Tracks 5, 11, 15, 17)
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One of Australia’s best known and most performed composers, Ross Edwards has created a distinctive sound world based on deep ecology and an awareness of the need to reconnect music with elemental forces and restore its traditional association with ritual.Throughout a long and storied career, Ross has written music that celebrates Australia – its cultural diversity, its natural environment, and its connection to the vast and diverse Pacific Rim region. Perhaps nowhere is this better demonstrated than in his chamber music, which allows for rich, detailed musical textures as well as an intense, focussed intimacy.Incantationscelebrates Ross’s 75th birthday in December 2018 by presenting a collection of his chamber music performed by some of Australia’s finest musicians, many of whom commissioned or premiered the pieces included here. It contains four previously unreleased recordings and a number of others making their CD debut, as well as highlights from the ABC Classics catalogue.It features a tremendous array of Australian musicians, including the Goldner String Quartet, Riley Lee, Claire Edwardes, Karin Schaupp, New Sydney Wind Quintet, Apollo Trio, Enigma Quartet, Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo, Jason Noble, Melissa Doecke, Mark Isaacs, The Seymour Group, Alexandre Oguey, Bernadette Harvey, and the Australia Ensemble @UNSW. TRACKLISTINGCD11-5 Animisms* Australia Ensemble @UNSW6-7 Sea Star Fantasy Bernadette Harvey piano8-11 String Quartet No. 2 ‘Shekina Fantasy’* Goldner String Quartet12 Djanaba Claire Edwardes marimba, Karin Schaupp guitar13-15 Incantations New Sydney Wind Quintet16-18 Piano Trio Apollo Trio CD21-5 The Laughing Moon New Sydney Wind Quintet6 Voice of the Rain* Riley Lee shakuhachi, Enigma Quartet7-9 Piano Sonata Bernadette Harvey piano10 Water Spirit Song* Alexandre Oguey cor anglais11-19 A Flight of Sunbirds Viney-Grinberg Piano Duo20 Binyang Jason Noble clarinet, Claire Edwardes claves21-23 Nura Melissa Doecke flute, Mark Isaacs piano24-28 Laikan The Seymour Group *Previously unreleased recordings
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Australian piano virtuoso Jayson Gillham presents his fourth album on ABC Classics, devoted to the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Featuring 11 of Bach’s compositions transcribed and arranged, from Rachmaninoff’s arrangement of the Violin Partita in E major into a pianistic showpiece, to Myra Hess’s sublime ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’, Jayson Gillham’s latest release is a love letter to Bach from a who’s who of the great pianists and pianist-composers – Rachmaninoff, Percy Grainger, Hess, Busoni, Siloti and Petri.“The thing about Bach,” says Jayson, “is that it works so well on whatever instrument combination you put it on. It’s something to do with the way Bach thinks, and the way he writes the music – the content is more important than the timbre of the instrument that it’s played on. And so it’s really effective on all instruments – particularly the piano.”Born 333 years ago in Germany, Bach remains arguably the most important musician in the Western musical tradition. Nowhere does his outsized brilliance shine through more brightly than in his keyboard works, and the influence that they have had on centuries of composers and musicians. This celebrated repertoire allows the full extent of Jayson’s artistry to shine through, revealing the profound depth of his musicality, and a mind constantly interrogating his performance, his instrument, and the music.Born and brought up in rural Queensland, Jayson Gillham travelled for hours to piano lessons in Brisbane, before shooting to fame in a number of prestigious international competitions. He is now recognised as one of the finest pianists of his generation, performing across the globe with the world’s most prestigious orchestras, venues and festivals. ABC Classics signed Jayson for a three-album deal, and his debut record, an all-solo offering surveying music by Bach, Schubert and Chopin, reached No. 1 in the ARIA Charts on release. Soon afterwards the great pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, conducting the Sydney Symphony, chose to make his first-ever recording of a Beethoven concerto with Jayson Gillham at the keyboard. Jayson’s Medtner and Rachmaninoff album, recorded in 2017 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Benjamin Northey, received unanimous praise and was Recording of the Month in Limelight magazine. TRACKLISTINGJOHANN SEBASTIAN BACHFugue in E major, BWV878 from The Well-Tempered Clavier, arr. Percy Grainger Suite from Violin Partita in E major, BWV1006 arr. Sergei RachmaninoffI. PreludeII. GavotteIII. Gigue Fantasia and Fugue in A minor, BWV904I. FantasiaII. FugueSheep May Safely Graze from Cantata BWV208, arr. Egon Petri Capriccio on the Departure of his Beloved Brother, BWV992I. Arioso: AdagioII. [Andante]III. AdagiosissimoIV. [Andante con moto]V. Aria del Postiglione: Allegro pocoVI. Fuga all’imitatione della postaSicilianofrom Flute Sonata No. 2 in E-flat major, BWV1031, arr. Wilhelm KempffJesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring from Cantata BWV147,arr. Myra HessNun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein, BWV734a arr. Ferruccio BusoniChaconne from Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV1004 arr. Ferruccio BusoniOrgan Prelude in E minor, BWV555 arr. Alexander Siloti PERCY GRAINGER 1882–1961Blithe Bells: A free ramble on JS Bach’s ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’
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The Grigoryan Brothers return with an album of J.S. Bach’s best-loved concertos, newly arranged for two guitars and orchestra.The two great forces in J.S. Bach’s life were music and family - somewhat inevitably, for a man who had twenty children. Bach first wrote the concertos on this disc as a young composer finding his place in the world, seeking to establish both his musical and personal identity. But they stayed with him throughout his life: he adapted them for different instruments, performed them with his sons, and used them to pass down his musical and life experiences.So it is entirely fitting that two brothers, Slava and Leonard Grigoryan, have come together to play these works. The parallels are even more poignant considering their father, Edward, created the arrangements on this disc, and that early rehearsals of this material involved their parents (Edward on violin, Irina on viola) and Slava’s wife Sharon (on cello). The intimacy and eternity of Bach’s music could hardly be better illustrated.This album follows on from the brilliant success of Slava’s two recent albums of Bach cello suites arranged for solo guitar: albums that broke records for the longest time spent atop the ARIA Classical charts, and which both won the ARIA for Best Classical Album (2017 + 2018). It also continues the family tradition of their most recent album as a duo, 2017’s Songs Without Words, which featured beloved classical works arranged for guitar duo by their father Edward.Slava and Leonard are counted amongst the finest musicians of their generation, and between them have been awarded four ARIA awards and received an incredible further 24 nominations, confirming their status as Australia’s favourite guitarists. TRACKLISTINGJS BACH 1685–1750Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV1043 (Arrangement for two guitars in A minor)I. VivaceII. Largo ma non tantoIII. Allegro Concerto for Keyboard in D minor, BWV1052 (Arrangement for two guitars in D minor)I. AllegroII. AdagioIII. Allegro Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, BWV1060R (Arrangement for two guitars in G minor)I. AllegroII. AdagioIII. Allegro Arioso (Sinfonia: Adagio) (from Cantata BWV156) All tracks arranged for two guitars and orchestra by Edward Grigoryan Slava Grigoryan guitarLeonard Grigoryan guitarAdelaide Symphony Orchestra Benjamin Northey conductor
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Soliloquy: An act of speaking your thoughts aloud, oblivious to any listenersFor acclaimed Australian recorder virtuoso Genevieve Lacey, Telemann’s twelve fantasias for solo flute have long had an intensely personal connection. As a teenager she was obsessed with a famous recording by the legendary Frans Brüggen, and performed the first fantasia of the set at her cousin’s funeral – the only thing she could think of to ease all that family pain.Genevieve never learned the other eleven; the first was too tightly wound with grief for her to imagine a relationship with any of the others. But years later when she was ready to return to this beloved music, inspiration struck, and she decided to devote herself to learning one fantasia a month throughout 2017.Over the course of that year, these fantasias became like a personal diary for Genevieve. An acutely personal and isolated process became a soliloquy – a series of moments out of time, out of earshot, diving ever deeper into sound, into memory, dream, and wonder.Georg Philipp Telemann(1681–1767) was acclaimed in his day as the best composer in Germany – greater even than his contemporary, JS Bach. An absolute master of all the established musical forms of his day, both sacred and secular, Telemann was also a trailblazer with a seemingly inexhaustible imagination. His Fantasias for solo flute proved for the first time that this was an instrument able to weave from its single line of melody a vast harmonic tapestry, full of colour and emotion. Genevieve's performances reveal equally gorgeous and surprising colours on the recorder. TRACKLISTINGGEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN (1681–1757) Fantasias for solo flute, TWV 40:2–13Fantasia No 1 in A majorFantasia No 2 in A minorFantasia No 3 in B minorFantasia No 4 in B-flat majorFantasia No 5 in C majorFantasia No 6 in D minorFantasia No 7 in D majorFantasia No 8 in E minorFantasia No 9 in E majorFantasia No 10 in F-sharp minorFantasia No 11 in G majorFantasia No 12 in G minor Genevieve Laceyrecorder
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Flinders Quartet • Benjamin Martin pianoFour Australian works played by one of Australia’s best chamber groups.Flinders Quartetis one of Australia’s best-loved and most highly respected chamber music ensembles, acclaimed for dynamic and stirring performances of a full spectrum of repertoire. The quartet also have an ongoing mission to further the Australian tradition of chamber music by commissioning and premiering new works by Australian composers: all four pieces on this disc were commissioned or premiered by the quartet in service of this goal.Elena Kats-Chernin’sThe Offering is the composer’s first piece for piano quintet. A kaleidoscopic work, it draws on elements and forms from different musical eras; witness the Baroque elegance of the first movement, the ragtime rhythms of the third. Richard Mills’ quartet Glimpses from My Book of Dada is full of idiosyncratic observations of life and people, from neighbours dancing in the rain to the behaviour of wombats, from composer and educator Dulcie Holland’s aversion to fifths to a surreal dream of Graham Koehne’s mother, it is a piece vivid in imagination and vivid in its descriptions.Peter Sculthorpe’seighteenth and final string quartet is in many ways his most poignant, an evocative depiction of the Australian landscape that he loved so well and its suffering under a changing climate. Widely regarded as one of the greatest modern chamber works, it is by turns dramatic, heroic and filled with longing. Like the Sculthorpe, Tom Henry’sScenes From a Poet's Life pushes the possibilities of the string quartet form, though this is much more personal in scope, as the poet of the title struggles to attain the paradise tantalisingly glimpsed in the process of writing.TRACKLISTINGELENA KATS-CHERNIN The OfferingI. Allegro con spiritoII. AndanteIII. Vivace scherzoIV. TranquilloV. Allegro energetico RICHARD MILLS String Quartet No. 4: Glimpses from My Book of Dada I. The Circumspect IbisII. The Rise of the Airheads in Public LifeIII. Rêve circulaire du wombatIV. Rare Umbrella Dance of Molly HouriganV. Scheming and Latté DrinkingVI. The Octopus QuadrilleVII. Dulcie Holland Says NoVIII.Anti Tango from Berlin as Premonition of Invasion by Russian HerbalistsIX. Prayer for Nonna Thora PETER SCULTHORPE String Quartet No. 18 I. PreludeII. A Land SingingIII. A Dying LandIV. A Lost LandV. Postlude TOM HENRY20. Scenes from a Poet’s Life Flinders QuartetShane Chen violinNicholas Waters violinHelen Ireland violaZoe Knighton cello withBenjamin Martin piano [tks 1-5]
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triple j's much-loved Like A Version series returns with its 14th volume – featuring a host of local and international artists covering their favourite tunes, aired on triple j brekky with hosts Ben and Liam. This year's double album features a collection of 39 tracks including Gang of Youths covering Middle East's 'Blood,' Billie Eilish's version of Michael Jacksons smash hit 'Bad' and a tonne more awesome covers from the likes of Ocean Alley, CHVRCHES, Meg Mac, Gordi, The Kooks, Nothing But Thieves and heaps more!
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A Redder Shade of Rustis Peabody’s fifth studio album and the first since 2010’s Loose Manifesto. It also might just be the band’s most cohesive album yet. Recorded in a brand new school hall with Tim Kevin at the helm of knobs and Jamie Hutchings back in the producer’s chair (as he was for the first three albums), this album is ten tracks of pure indie-rock-pop joy and beauty. Listen to the heavy rhythms of album opener, You’re with Me and you can hear the open space of the large, taxpayer-funded wooden hall. Likewise in the droney Perfectly Fine and the ad-lib-esque roaming of Sometimes. When Kevin loudly declares, “rolling!” from the other side of the hall, at the start of some of the tracks, you know you’re in a big room. And there really was tape rolling in that machine, too! Lyrically, Chamie’s youth and a good dose of nostalgia are sprinkled right throughout the album, with tunes about old cars (Gemini), old friends (Julie) and old neighbourhoods (You’re with Me) all taking you on a little tour of the ‘burbs of Sydney, if not the museum of Chamie’s funny little mind. The only Brayovic-penned number (Too Many Days) also deals with some long-gone days and the joys of wasting away your twenties…. and thirties. After four albums that have entrenched themselves into Sydney and Australia’s independent music lore, this is a band that will keep adding to its canon for as long as its members are still shuffling along with a semblance of a pulse. A band whose dedication to great albums and great live shows won’t slow down, even if the frequency of that output does. A Redder Shade of Rust as an album is a bona fide keeper. Save yourself some time and trouble and press repeat after you press play.
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After The War was initiated by Dr Brendan Nelson, Director of the Australian War Memorial, and recorded at RancomSt Studios in Sydney with Garth Porter (Producer). This album commemorates and honours the men and women who are serving, and have served our country; and coincides with the 100 year anniversary of the signing of the Armistice on 11th November 1918, the end of The Great War. The album spans from Gallipoli and Passchendaele, to the sinking of HMAS Canberra in 1942 in the waters off SavoIsland, to the Battle of Long Tan in a rubber plantation in Vietnam, and the blurred and dusty battle lines of Afghanistan. The songs have been brought to life by the contributions of talented and generous artists who have all donated their royalties to veteran services under the direction of the Australian War Memorial. These proceeds will be fully committed to the Australian War Memorial to support initiatives, exhibitions and programmes in support of young veterans and their families Artists featured include Lee Kernaghan, Wes Carr, John Schumann, Glen Shorrock, The Wolfe Brothers, Lance Corporal Elizabeth Smith, Darren Percival, Garth Porter, The Royal Australian Navy Band, Sisters In Arms. (three women from the Airforce, the Navy and the Army), Fred Smith and members of the Polyphony Choir.
