Wahyu Permadi

Wahyu Sidiq Permadi (b. 1998), known professionally as WAYS, is an Indonesian sound artist, music producer, and researcher whose practice bridges hip-hop, experimental sound design, and critical socio-spatial inquiry. Holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Photography (2020) and a Master of Fine Arts in Sound Art from the Bandung Institute of Technology (2024), WAYS’s artistic trajectory reflects a decade-long evolution rooted in geographical and subcultural transitions. Relocating from Semarang to Bandung in 2016, he synthesized early electronic music and traditional sonic archives with heavy music subgenres—hardcore, metal, doom—and the counter-cultural ethos of local collectives like Grimloc Records and Def Bloc. Incorporating cinematographic principles into audio composition, WAYS established a distinct noir-textured aesthetic, inaugurated in his debut album Gondes (2020), which interrogates regional identity renegotiation within urban environments. His work extends beyond conventional discography into site-specific interventions, public solidarity movements (including Dago Elos and Festival Kampung Kota), and critical sound art installations. Notable projects include Magnetic Syrinx (ARTJOG 2023), where DJ scratching techniques mimicked avian calls to critique songbird exploitation in Indonesia’s Kicau Mania culture; contemporary dance collaborations reinterpreting Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s Larasati (2024–2025); and Absen (2025), a public art intervention at Banceuy Prison examining institutional invisibility within urban governance networks. Following cross-disciplinary collaborations in New York, Italy, and West Java, his current research focuses on Javanese trance rituals such as Sintren, Ebeg, Bantengan, and Tarawangsa. This fieldwork informs his upcoming performing arts production and project Kerasukan Kerusakan, wherein ritual possession (kerasukan) is reframed not as mystical lore, but as a diagnostic methodology to dissect socio-structural fractures (kerusakan) in contemporary Java, alongside his forthcoming LP Ketukan Yang Maha Esa (2027).