After more than two decades composing for film, television, documentaries and immersive projects, Dale Cornelius is turning towards a more intimate musical setting. His forthcoming album, What Is Carried, What Is Left Behind?, moves beyond the demands of screen scoring to draw directly on his own memories and experiences. Featuring Eclective Strings, it is scheduled for release in October 2026.
Cornelius’s career encompasses more than 90 international productions, with credits including Mary & Max, Backtrack, Till Human Voices Wake Us and five seasons of The Doctor Blake Mysteries. He has also composed for the IMAX documentaries Hidden Universe and The Great Barrier Reef, alongside site-specific immersive works for the Australian Pavilions at the Shanghai and Nagoya World Expos. His work has received 18 major international awards and nominations, including recognition from AACTA and APRA/AMCOS.
The new album brings that experience with sound and space into a six-track chamber cycle combining strings, synthesizers and found sound. A recording of a wind-driven metal door in Montalcino, Italy, became the title track’s central sonic motif. The programme also includes “A Whispered Dawn (Spencer’s Lullaby),” a composition written in 1999 during his son’s difficult early months, and “In This Moment, What Matters Most?”, whose title grew out of a personal reminder during a period of caregiving and anxiety.
Early responses include praise from Deutsche Grammophon Senior Manager A&R Anusch Alimirzaie, who described Cornelius’s music as “truly beautiful.” Christian Kellersman, executive producer of Deutsche Grammophon’s Recomposed series, said, “I listened to your new album and it’s beautiful.” Available in Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio and stereo, the release places Cornelius’s own story at the centre of the work rather than alongside a narrative created for the screen.
