Wasia Project

Wasia Project im Columbia Theater

Wasia Project chart a new hinterland on debut album, ‘Nocturne’, out this summer via AWAL. Sibling duo - Olivia Hardy and Will Gao - turn coming-of-age angst into catharsis, fashioning a kinetic journey steeped in the lore of the night; the heady introspection of twilight hours, and the euphoric embrace of the dancefloor where bodies commune and coexist. Across 12 tracks, Wasia Project alchemize their classical training with the friction and frisson of club-adjacent dance music, cinematic piano-pop balladry, modern soul and shades of electronica. If one stock image of the auditory journey is evoked, it’s that of a white lily blooming in a moonlit urban space surrounded by silhouettes captured through slow shutter speed.

‘Nocturne’is the voice of youth, the voice of now. An album that is intrinsically fresh and relevant, a presentation of Wasia Project’s experiences, both unique and universal, for audiences of all ages to relate to and reflect on. An eerily prescient take on the lost years during and after COVID, the album examines the residual effects of distance and isolation on a perennially-online generation of young adults suspended in time. In keeping with the interior and exterior night-time spaces Will and Olivia were occupying as they entered their twenties, the pair lower the pH of their sound, eschewing the lightness of their early inventions for a darker, grittier, more narcotic brew.