Wasia Project have released Nocturne, their first album, through AWAL Recordings. The duo are siblings, Will Gao and Olivia Hardy, and the record runs to 12 tracks built around a single idea rather than a collection of singles.
The idea is a night, taken from end to end. "Our debut album Nocturne is a collection of songs that take us on a journey through the night," the pair say, describing a space where feelings play out in extremes, and setting the electric connection of a nightclub against the isolation of a sleepless night.
Musically it is a darker turn than what came before. DIY describes more immersive territory, with the duo's classical backgrounds run through art-pop, soul, trip-hop and dance-inspired production. That combination is what the album's four singles had been sketching out: 2515, Bleeding Gold, Whale Call and Vogue.
The route here has been unusually quick. Wasia Project drew attention with the 2022 EP how can I pretend?, which carried the breakout track ur so pretty, then followed it with Isotope in 2024, and built the rest of their audience through live shows rather than through another EP.
The touring around the album is the biggest they have done. Five in-store shows run through late September at Rough Trade East in London, Rough Trade Bristol, Liverpool's Jacaranda Baltic, Assai Records in Edinburgh and Resident Music in Brighton, which is a record-shop run rather than a venue run.
The proper headline dates follow in November. Glasgow's SWG3 Galvanizers opens on the 4th, then New Century Hall in Manchester, Leeds Beckett Students Union, the O2 Institute in Birmingham and O2 Academy Bristol, before London's Roundhouse on the 11th. Europe takes the rest of the month, with Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin's Columbiahalle on the 25th.
Playing the Roundhouse off the back of a debut album and two EPs is a larger room than that sequence usually earns, which is the clearest sign of how much of this act was built live. DIY gave the record four stars two days before it came out.
We covered the last single in the Vogue release. Nocturne sits with the autumn's other indie and pop debuts on the release calendar, and the UK dates are listed in the tour guide.
The facts
- Wasia Project's debut album Nocturne is out through AWAL Recordings.
- The duo are siblings Will Gao and Olivia Hardy.
- The record runs to 12 tracks.
- It follows the singles 2515, Bleeding Gold, Whale Call and Vogue.
- Their 2022 EP how can I pretend? carried the breakout track ur so pretty.
- Five UK in-store shows run through late September.
- A UK and European headline tour opens in Glasgow on 4 November.
- The London date is at the Roundhouse on 11 November.
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