I’m proud to say we’ve expanded the Guide to feature more than 700 composers, improvisers and sound artists this year. Each was asked to put forward one piece of music responding to this year’s theme, “A different kind of songbird”: calling cards, emblematic pieces and a cohort that relishes the properties that make their own music unique. Most works have been selected by their creator, but where we couldn’t get a selection in time, I’ve made the final choice, leaning on work I’ve previously featured in the monthly Australian Art Music playlist.

Inclusion on this list was based on an open sign-up form and the ability to provide a publicly available recording on Spotify or Bandcamp. If you’d like to be involved in future years, the Sign-Up Form for 2027 is available here.

Whenever I’ve travelled overseas, I’ve always found myself homesick for Australian birds: the completely wild array of sounds, from kookaburra laughs to cockatoo screeches, the squeal of sugar-high lorikeets and the chortle of magpies. Even the gravelly growls and rumbles of the intimidating cassowary (painted as our yearly mascot by the multi-talented Lucy Mutimer) evoke a timeless Australia.

I feel the same way about Australian music – and it’s my deep honour and joy to immerse myself each month in the sound worlds my peers create when curating the playlist, so I invite you all to join me. Come explore the wilds of Australian Art Music, revisit old friends, uncover new favourites and bravely go where your ears have never gone before. We have music from classical to jazz, experimental and improvised music, and sound art; Music Creators from A to Z and from every state and territory, as well as abroad. (Bonus points for anyone willing to match music to bird species. Please tell me who, exactly, is the cassowary of Australian Art Music? And who is the seagull? I have theories…)