Welcome to the Australian Art Music playlist! A monthly playlist of classical, jazz, experimental and electronic music focused on contemporary Australian composers, musicians and sound artists.

Musicians need support to keep creating the music you love. So, moving forward I’ll be hosting the playlist on Bandcamp and BuyMusic.Club where you can listen to and buy digital or physical copies of your favourites each month. I’m buying a digital copy of every album featured and I invite you all to join me!

This month, we’re spotlight a whole bunch of new releases and previewing some upcoming albums across the gamut of Australian art music. We have solo guitar to pure electronics to opera. As always if anything excites you, definitely go check out the full albums – it was so hard to pick only one or two from each!

A couple of personal highlights include Desert of Crystal (another name for Antarctica) by Fiona Joy Hawkins, the textural Full Forest by Julius Schwing, and the majestic and haunting Ghost Type by Lawrence English. Let us know your favourites on social media, keen to see what resonates.

As always please feel free to pitch your music (new or old) to aussieartmusic@gmail.com and let us know your favourite tracks from this month on socials.

Also, composers, improvisers, and sound artists who would like to be included in this year’s Guide to Australian Composers, submit your details by August 21st via the form here.

And, if you’d like to support the playlist, please join the Australian Art Music playlist Patreon to suggest and vote on future themes, and get some behind the scenes posts and perks.

Track by Track

1. A sort of introduction by Luke Altmann | performed by Konstantin Shamray
2. Desert of Crystal by Fiona Joy Hawkins
3. Korpi by Moses Mohammed
4. The Acceptance by Troy Russell, arr. Tommie Andersson | performed by The Marais Project (Susie Bishop, Jenny Eriksson, & Tommie Andersson)
5. Hymn by Helen Svoboda | performed by Helen Svoboda & Jacques Emery
6. Sprite Mockery from Idle Hands by Luke Altmann | performed by Konstantin Shamray
7. Father’s Song from Opera for the Dead by Monica Lim & Mindy Meng Wang | performed by Mindy Meng Wang, Monica Lim, Yu-Tien Lin, Nils Hobiger, Alexander Meagher, Cathy Chen & Jialun Liu
8. Mountain Witch by Austin Oting Har | performed by Laura Wachsmann, Vicki Zheng, Phuong Ofner, Kleo Heather Yang, Aleisha Kahn, Harrison Werlemann-Godfrey, & Dominic Cabrera
9. It comes in wave from Material by Connor D’Netto & Yvette Ofa Agapow
10. 42 Again by Jenna Cave | performed by Jenna Cave & Andrew Scott
11. Strange Paradox by Jim Ottaway
12. State of Latency by Ben Carey
13. Flute Trip by Erica Tucceri | performed by Erica Tucceri, Lewis Moody, Matthew Hayes, & Ziggy Zeitgeist
14. Full Forest by Julius Schwing
15. Wingspan by Clocked Out (Erik Griswold & Vanessa Tomlinson)
16. Prayer for Rain by Fiona Joy Hawkins
17. GhostType by Lawrence English | performed by Chris Abrahams & Madeleine Cocolas
18. The universe expands by Glyn Lehmann | performed by Celia Craig, Penelope Cashman, Pelham Andrews, & Glyn Lehmann
19. Lament of Remnant by Monica Lim & Mindy Meng Wang | performed by Mindy Meng Wang, Monica Lim, Yu-Tien Lin, Nils Hobiger, Alexander Meagher, Cathy Chen & Jialun Liu
20. Dizzy Spell by Hayley Chan
21. Gorgeous Nothings by Visions of Nar (Zela Margossian, Jeremy Rose, Bobby Singh, & Hilary Geddes)
22. Veins by Helen Svoboda | performed by Helen Svoboda, Selma Savolainen, & Jacques Emery
23. Blue Lightning by Austin Oting Har | performed by Laura Wachsmann, Jeremy Boulton, Jackson Tuynman, & Toby Fredkin
24. as one (epilogue) by Glyn Lehmann | performed by Celia Craig, Penelope Cashman, Pelham Andrews, & Glyn Lehmann

If you’re wanting more music to explore, check out previous playlists from this year here. Otherwise, I’d always recommend the Australian Art Music Archive, with all 1,759 previously featured Spotify tracks (roughly 178 hours of music), Limelight’s Guide to Australian Composers, and my 2024 community listening project: 1,000 Curious Ears – all 12 monthly editions of that series can be found here. 

Until next month, may you keep looking forward,

-Cameron

Listen on Bandcamp or BuyMusicClub

Listen natively on Bandcamp with your fan account here. 

Otherwise listen on desktop at BuyMusic.Club below:

This playlist is updated monthly. Explore previous months’ playlists on our website and listen to the archive playlist (2019-2025) on Spotify.

Contact Cameron Lam on Facebook, Instagram, his website or via direct email: aussieartmusic@gmail.com to recommend tracks for the Australian Art Music playlist.