Welcome to WAV Island - a mystical place designed to help foster creativity, collaboration & community, brought to you by Spirit Level.
For eight weeks, 40 members of the Spirit Level Discord community travelled to the island to contribute one new musical idea each week. There were no rules - simply that you share a piece of audio that was brand new, and at least 30 seconds long, before the stroke of midnight each Sunday. Anyone who missed a week was kicked (gently) from the island - but most of us made it to the end.
We shared intimate recordings, playful experiments, beats, soundscapes and plenty of hectic last-minute submissions. Along the way, island-goers formed new collaborations, new friendships and a healthy sense of creative camaraderie and mutual support. By the end, over 200 pieces of music were created. This album brings together a selection of that music created during WAV Island’s inaugural season over October/November 2021.
These songs are sketches, not intended as finished works, so please listen to them as such. Nonetheless, this compilation stands as an impressive testimony to the power of disciplined inspiration, and what is possible when artists give each other mutual support and strength.
If you want to be part of WAV Island's second season in 2022, join Spirit Level's Discord server here and await further instructions:
discord.com/invite/2CAtNJF
released January 2, 2022
Anna O'Bryan
annaobryan.bandcamp.com
Naarm/Melbourne based artist Anna O'Bryan is an emerging producer and songwriter.
Antoni Grzyb
www.AntoniG.com
Polish-Australian composer Antoni G creates introspective piano-based works. Improvisation, orchestration, collaboration and diverse electronics may appear.
Basic Instinct
Named after a song by The Acid, Basic Instinct is the secret project of a Melbourne bedroom instrumentalist
David McDonald
soundcloud.com/divdivdiv/
David McDonald is a musician, composer and sound designer currently working and living in Sydney.
Dot.AY
dot-ay.com
Dot.AY is a genre obsessive who has been part of the chiptune scene for over a decade.
DUEL NATIVE
www.instagram.com/duel.native/
DUEL NATIVE is the name of half-Trinidadian, half-Hong Kongese environmental architect, social activist, and emerging artist, Stephen Choi.
exe2mp3
www.instagram.com/exe2mp3/
exe2mp3 makes music
Expo 88
www.instagram.com/expo88bne/
Expo 88 is the project from Meanjin based producer, Luke Cuerel, combining his love of electronica with the textures of jazz and orchestral music.
Gabriel Sinclair
www.instagram.com/itsgabrell/
Gabriel Sinclair creates contemporary dance, film, and music. He's always open to collaboration, and is at his best when performing his work live.
Gerard and Georgia Mason
twitter.com/gerardmason
Gerard Mason is a musician and technologist. Georgia Mason is a craftsperson and ice-cream enthusiast.
Hachiku
hachikumusic.bandcamp.com
Hachiku is the brainchild of German-Australian producer Anika Ostendorf who writes and produces worldly indie rock with an alt-pop appeal.
Heirloome
www.heirloome.net
Heirloome lives on a misty rainforest mountain, talks to birds, and makes magical realist folktronica/chamber pop.
Howevever
instagram.com/howevever/
Howevever is a singer/songwriter and producer, humanising electronic music from his bedroom in Perth.
Jackson Fumberger (feat. Anna O'Bryan)
jacksonfumberger.com
Jackson is an Australian violinist, creator and technologist with a love for orchestral and new music.
Jane Aubourg
www.janeaubourg.com.au
Jane Aubourg is a Dharawal/Wollongong based composer, violinist, and maker, whose creations draw from folk, minimalism, and exploratory music.
Jingle
www.instagram.com/jinglemusi/
Jingle is the electronic pop project of Newcastle musician Joshua Ingle combining elements of hip hop and pop music song writing with experimental production.
karmabox
twitter.com/paperadam
karmabox is Adam Grant is a person located on an unremarkable spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, about 26,000 light years from Sagittarius A*.
LOW STAKES x Snottdog
sydneycitychiptuneministries.com
LOW STAKES aka 10k is a tracker and musical hardware lover who teamed up with Melbourne junglist Snottdog on a M8 tracker collaboration during the former's stint on Wav Island.
Maxwell Dexter
maxwelldexter.com
Maxwell Dexter makes eclectic electronica, but really has no idea what he's doing.
Michael Ackroyd
www.instagram.com/_michaelackroyd/
Human person
River Boy
www.instagram.com/riverboyofficial/
River Boy’s music draws extensively on his childhood and teenage years spent roaming creaks, forests and mountains in the Northern Rivers, NSW.
Ronan
www.tiktok.com/@musicbyronan
Ronan is either a technomancer, back from the future to thwart the cyber-demons, or a Melbournian producer/Memelord. One of the two for sure
Sig Nu Gris
signugris.bandcamp.com
Melbourne-based sound designer Sig Nu Gris draws from club, experimental and ambient influences to shape textured beats, always watermarked with her unique sonic signature.
Sophia Kalo
www.instagram.com/sophiakreative/
Western Sydney based composer/multi-instrumentalist Sophia Kalo specialises in all things brooding and atmospheric, writing for dance films, and producing her own songs as 'Skarlette'. "Johanna" was composed as part of Screen Dance - Inhabitance Gallery (Sarah Saxon, 2021)
inhabitance-gallery.com
The Omega Point
www.theomegapointmusic.com
The Omega Point is the apocalyptic, hybrid art-music project of Mexican / Australian duo El Paul Michel Lara and Alexandra Moon
Tim Shiel
timshiel.com
Tim Shiel is Spirit Level's commander in chief, and is also an electronic musician who harnesses emotional trajectories of sound.
Wendy Lang
www.wendylang.com
Wendy Lang is a singer/clarinettist/tin whistler who writes sweet, sophisticated folk pop. Her lyric-driven songs dance between the playful and the ethereal.
Zannah
www.zannahmusic.com
Zannah is a Brisbane based composer and vocalist who draws inspiration from world music styles and loves to diversify her music across many genres.
Island illustration & type by Riverguts
www.instagram.com/riverguts/