It was great to meet and hang out with so many awesome musicians and industry people at Jazzahead in Bremen. The cultural sector and the world feel a little more grim than usual so connecting with people who are doing creative and rewarding projects was both refreshing and inspiring.
Thanks to Sounds Australia for the support and for the Swiss Music stand for adopting me.
I had a great time in Budapest for ClassicalNext meeting new musicians, industry people, and learning more about so many exciting projects.
Thanks to Sounds Australia for the support on the ground and for the Australian Ambassador for the region Mr Ian Biggs for coming to connect.
I am thrilled to have been awarded an Art Music Fund commission to compose The Dying Art of Discourse - an extended work for jazz orchestra. The multi movement composition explores themes of post-truth, increasing polarization, digital hostility and echo chambers, the rewriting of history, and the shrinking of knowledge. There will be performances in Switzerland and throughout Australia in 2026. More details to come. Here is a link to the press release. Thanks to APRA AMCOS, The Australian Music Centre, and SOUNZ. Woohoo!
Here is a video of my composition Field Notes written for and performed by Eucalyptus Treeo with Steve Barry on piano and Hannah James on bass. This project was the result of an ABC Composer Commission with all three members contributing compositions. Each track is inspired by and explores concepts of Australian National Parks. We leaned into this and called ourselves Eucalyptus Treeo.
This track is from our new album which is available here for streaming platforms and here for Bandcamp
Thanks to ABC Jazz, James Kennedy, and Shadow Cut Films.
I'm very excited that my new trio album with pianist Steve Barry and bassist Hannah James is now out on ABC Jazz.
This project was the result of an ABC Composer Commission with all three members contributing compositions. Each track is inspired by and explores concepts of Australian National Parks. We leaned into this and called ourselves Eucalyptus Treeo.
The design is by my talented brother Sai Karlen.
Please check it out, we had a lot of fun making this album.
Here is a link to the music.
Sinking Cities was made possible through the support of Arts Queensland’s First Night Showcase – Judith
Wright Arts Centre Fund, the PPCA and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts,
its arts funding and advisory body.
I'm very excited to announce that ABC Classic have released ‘The River Above’, a single from the upcoming album release of Sinking Cities, performed by Camerata-Queensland's Chamber Orchestra, The Australian Voices and I with lyrics by Pearly Black. Please have a listen here
This project explores concepts of erasing history and sinking cities, and was inspired by the ancient city of Hasankeyf in Turkey which was flooded for a dam major project. The full album will be released on May 31. Please click here to pre-order.
I'm very excited to have been commissioned to write a 10-minute piece for the Brisbane Music Festival.
My new work Reconstructed Definitions for clarinet, cello and piano will be performed by the wonderful Dario Scalabrini, Katherine Philp, and Alex Raineri on Wednesday Dec 6 in Brisbane. It will be a lovely concert!
More information can be found below.
https://brismusicfestival.com/angelus/
I'm looking forward to playing with these awesome musicians at NIMA in Newcastle to launch our new single Forest Lines on ABC Jazz. Hannah James, Steve Barry and I were commissioned by ABC Jazz to compose and record music inspired by our relationship with and the history of our National Parks. This is the first single from the upcoming album.
Here is a link to the gig tickets
https://www.nima.org.au/event-details/eucalyptus-treeo
Here is a link to the single
https://open.spotify.com/track/0C2bWyRp6yaoJTqzrS9jQt?si=35acc15d27e841a7
It was very nice to be asked to write music for my brother Sai Karlen's interactive installation at the Museum of Brisbane in Queensland. His work explores the relationship of play between in the digital and physical world and looks amazing!
https://www.museumofbrisbane.com.au/whats-on/play-moves/
