Making Conversation

In this episode you’ll hear:

Composer: Cat Hope

interviewed by: Leah Blankendaal

This conversation was recorded in 2016 in Cat’s home in North Perth, WA.

“I guess the key thing to understand about my music is that I’m not interested in pulse. And I’m really interested aleatoric processes, especially around pitch.”

Cat Hope’s practice spans many different styles. She’s active in noise music, grunge, slowcore and experimentation. Whilst in Western Australia, her work with Decibel ensemble has had an undeniable impact on the shape and sound of experimental music in this region. Now in Melbourne, Cat was recently appointed Head of the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash. Before she left WA she caught up with Leah Blankendaal in her North Perth home to talk life, politics, and practice.

Lux Mammoth

Fourth Estate

The music you heard in the opening and closing credits is:

The Making Conversation: Australian Composers’ Podcast is brought to you by Making Waves.

The Making Conversation Podcast has been made possible with the generous support of:

Project Patron: Cameron Lam of Kammerklang

Production Donors: Kieren Paynter, Nigel Poole, PLEXUS, Callum Moncrieff, Constance Barberakis, David John Lang, Christopher Gordon, Anne Gill, Brian Howard, Caroline Thompson, Leah Barclay and Jocelyn Wolfe and all who contributed to the successful crowdfunding campaign

Making Conversation is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through MATCH.

In this episode you’ll hear:

Composer: Mark Oliveiro

interviewed by: Peggy Polias

This conversation was recorded on 23/09/16 in an office in Sydney’s CBD.

“I feel like we’re in an age, with all of the advances technologically… I think we’re on the brink of something. Someone’s going to have some kind of a eureka one day very, very soon and it’s going to change the game for all of us, and I’m excited…”

In September of 2016 I caught up with Sydney composer Mark Oliveiro in Sydney city. He swiped us up to level 37 of the ANZ Tower where he provides audio-visual services in the corporate sector. Here’s our chat, which touched on the work and creativity juggle, but also on some decidedly non-corporate and highly artistic themes!

Tartarian Psalms (2011)

Calliphora (2011)

The music you heard in the opening and closing credits is:

The Making Conversation: Australian Composers’ Podcast is brought to you by Making Waves.

The Making Conversation Podcast has been made possible with the generous support of:

Project Patron: Cameron Lam of Kammerklang

Production Donors: Kieren Paynter, Nigel Poole, PLEXUS, Callum Moncrieff, Constance Barberakis, David John Lang, Christopher Gordon, Anne Gill, Brian Howard, Caroline Thompson, Leah Barclay and Jocelyn Wolfe and all who contributed to the successful crowdfunding campaign

Making Conversation is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through MATCH.

In this episode you’ll hear

Composer: Paul Ballam-Cross

interviewed by: Sascha Kelly

This conversation was recorded on the 8th of August, 2016, at Paul’s home in the Western Suburbs of Brisbane.

[On Collaboration)]: “I think the best way, is the way I worked on these pieces with Emma (Di Marco – Saxophonist), where she said …“Look I’m really excited about this idea! I’d like to try out this technique I’ve been playing around with”… and I said …“Well what if we try this?”… And everything kind of went from there. I think that’s kind of the best way to do things.”

I talked to Paul Ballam-Cross on a beautiful August day in the western suburbs of Brisbane. Paul, a seasoned broadcaster himself, was an eloquent, quick-silver interview subject, and I felt we easily fell into a rhythm. Paul, as he’ll describe in the podcast, came to composition a bit later, and I found him refreshing and honest – and willing to openly share his honest perspective on the art of composition – even when he finds it difficult.

A particular highlight for me was when he picked up the guitar to prove a point in one of his examples. It was just such a generous, genuine part of our discussion that I completely forgot we were being recorded.

Anagrammata

Two Portraits of One Subject

The music you heard in the opening and closing credits is:

The Making Conversation: Australian Composers’ Podcast is brought to you by Making Waves.

The Making Conversation Podcast has been made possible with the generous support of:

Project Patron: Cameron Lam of Kammerklang

Production Donors: Kieren Paynter, Nigel Poole, PLEXUS, Callum Moncrieff, Constance Barberakis, David John Lang, Christopher Gordon, Anne Gill, Brian Howard, Caroline Thompson, Leah Barclay and Jocelyn Wolfe and all who contributed to the successful crowdfunding campaign

Making Conversation is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through MATCH.

In this episode you’ll hear

Composer: Rachel Bruerville

interviewed by: David John Lang

This conversation was recorded in 2016 in a practice room at the Elder Conservatorium of Music, University of Adelaide.

“I try and listen to everything, including things I hate, because I think that broadens my ears, and it’s interesting to listen to things that you don’t like and, kind of, analyse why you might not like it…”

In this episode, Rachel Bruerville reflects on her musical upbringing as a singer and cellist, her growing interest in environmental science, and then the late realisation that she actually wanted to be a composer. She talks with David John Lang about how she loves to compose with words and what she hopes her music can achieve, and then tackles the fraught question of what it means to be an “Australian composer”.

A Chantar M’er by Rachel Bruerville.

River by Rachel Bruerville.

A Bird Sings by Rachel Bruerville.

The music you heard in the opening and closing credits is:

The Making Conversation: Australian Composers’ Podcast is brought to you by Making Waves.

The Making Conversation Podcast has been made possible with the generous support of:

Project Patron: Cameron Lam of Kammerklang

Production Donors: Kieren Paynter, Nigel Poole, PLEXUS, Callum Moncrieff, Constance Barberakis, David John Lang, Christopher Gordon, Anne Gill, Brian Howard, Caroline Thompson, Leah Barclay and Jocelyn Wolfe and all who contributed to the successful crowdfunding campaign

Making Conversation is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through MATCH.

In this episode you’ll hear

Composer: Samantha Wolf

interviewed by: Lisa Cheney

This conversation was recorded on 23/10/2016, in Melbourne, Victoria, over tea and cookies on a particularly overcast Spring day.

“Try to tap in to what interested you in music in the first place. For me, that’s an element of play, it’s an element of intuition as well, and an element of physicality. Try to nail down what it is that gets you excited and build it in to your music as much as you can.”

Interviewer Lisa Cheney settled in for a conversation with her good friend and talented Melbourne based composer, Samantha Wolf. They chatted on a wide range of topics covering the composer’s beginnings in a regional Queensland, study, music, feminist sound art, the label ‘female composer’ and mental health. The conversation finishes with Samantha offering her younger self some sage advice for the future.

The More I Think About It The Bigger It Gets

Scintillation

Paresthesia

The music you heard in the opening and closing credits is:

The Making Conversation: Australian Composers’ Podcast is brought to you by Making Waves.

The Making Conversation Podcast has been made possible with the generous support of:

Project Patron: Cameron Lam of Kammerklang

Production Donors: Kieren Paynter, Nigel Poole, PLEXUS, Callum Moncrieff, Constance Barberakis, David John Lang, Christopher Gordon, Anne Gill, Brian Howard, Caroline Thompson, Leah Barclay and Jocelyn Wolfe and all who contributed to the successful crowdfunding campaign

Making Conversation is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through MATCH.

In this episode you’ll hear

Composer: Thomas Misson

interviewed by: Stephanie Eslake

This conversation was recorded on 30/01/2017, in Hobart, TAS, at the interviewer’s home in Sandy Bay.

“I think people would genuinely suffer in this country without new music”

Interviewer Stephanie Eslake caught up earlier in the year with composer Thomas Misson in Hobart TAS.

Saturday Night Tuberculosis by Thomas Misson

Abscission by Thomas Misson

‘Saturday Night Tuberculosis’ by Thomas Misson: Jack Barnes performing. ‘Abscission’ by Thomas Misson: Alethea Coombe, Jack Barnes, Matt Brennan performing.

The music you heard in the opening and closing credits is:

The Making Conversation: Australian Composers’ Podcast is brought to you by Making Waves.

The Making Conversation Podcast has been made possible with the generous support of:

Project Patron: Cameron Lam of Kammerklang

Production Donors: Kieren Paynter, Nigel Poole, PLEXUS, Callum Moncrieff, Constance Barberakis, David John Lang, Christopher Gordon, Anne Gill, Brian Howard, Caroline Thompson, Leah Barclay and Jocelyn Wolfe and all who contributed to the successful crowdfunding campaign

Making Conversation is supported by Creative Partnerships Australia through MATCH.