Blue Divers is the loose, shape-shifting project of multi-instrumentalist Alec Marshall, based in Thirroul in the northern suburbs of Wollongong, on the New South Wales coast. Marshall had previously played in the Melbourne band Hot Palms, and Blue Divers began life as an improvising four-piece with Jack Saltmiras, Steph Day and Jordan Ireland before settling into something more elastic: a project whose line-up can run anywhere from a solo set to a ten-piece band, depending on who turns up.
The name has a pleasingly local origin. Marshall has said it came from the bush and creek around his family home, and from a coastal bushcare group that had itself been named after the kingfishers that dart along the area’s waterways. That rootedness in place runs right through the music, which feels less like a set of songs than a record of a particular stretch of coastline.
The self-titled debut LP, home of ‘Dogs’, was made quickly during a break from work in 2020. Marshall built the basic tracks alone, a few a day, before bringing in Ashley Bundang and Jordan Ireland, whose contributions he credits with lifting the whole record; Carla Oliver appears on one track. It became the first release in Bedroom Suck Records’ Private Eyes series, which set out to document music made in isolation during that strange year.
What emerged is ambient, experimental guitar music: hazy, unhurried figures, chiming keys and a gently flowing quality that never tips into background wallpaper. The album was launched with a suitably homespun show in a shed, with Low Flung also on the bill and Marshall’s six-year-old housemate handing round fruit platters to the audience, the sort of detail that tells you everything about the spirit of the project.
