Kris Zaballero (they/them) is an artist thoroughly of the internet age. Under the moniker Paper Aviator, the local nonbinary Filipinx musician and composer specializes in digital fusion music, a post-modern microgenre that casts a computer-music aesthetic (e.g. VGM, chiptune, etc.) onto traditional styles like jazz, classical, prog, funk, pop and rock. But Zaballero’s latest project is even more extremely online than that.
Cloud Crew is a fluid experimental art collective spearheaded by Paper Aviator. “The collective is basically just my Discord server,” Zaballero says. “It’s a bunch of music and art friends — college classmates, local musicians and artists, etc., but primarily composers from the ‘Digital Fusion’ community. There are folks from all around the world: Sweden, the U.K., Japan, Argentina. It’s also a very LGBTQ+ server, with lots of trans musicians and artists.”
Cloud Crew’s maiden venture is a collaboration crash course that resulted in a recently released LP titled A Is for ALBUM! “Essentially, the album worked like a game jam, but for an album,” says Zaballero. “I gave the prompt ‘A is for …’ and people would offer ideas, and others would build off of them. The requirement was that everything had to be collaborative. Mastering and video editing happened after we made the weekend, but all the art and music was completed only in two days!”
Over a whirlwind weekend, Zaballero conducted a brigade of over 20 Digifu artists that included Alexa Welch, Ash Zaballero, Avoset, Bec, Ixen Arcaniss, Centurion.cee, Cartoondemonart, DonutShoes, Finni, Han Elliot, Garpejio, Minsung Kim, Ohmepeepee, October, Pigdeons, SnugglyBun, Telebasher, PunkRockGlock, Winnie and Zantilla.
Given the scheme, it’s unsurprising that the result is a head-spinning ride that’s as much pastiche as it is kaleidoscope. What is surprising, though, is how well it all works.
Over eight tracks, the album is a Technicolor roller coaster that takes a dizzying rainbow of sounds, shakes ’em around and serves ’em up like a splashy cocktail. There’s jazz (“Adventure!,” “Ambience!”), spacey soul (“Apprehensive!”), folk (“Alligator!”), action-movie funk (“Almost!!!”), mallsoft drum & bass (“ASDF/Amen Break!”), metal (“Anguish!”) and a playful accordion stomper that could jam with Mexico Institute of Sound (“Accordion!”).
What binds everything is an energy that’s collective, exuberant and infectious. It makes for a joyride that packs the colorful variety of a mixtape and the breathless fun of a mashup. Even better, all money raised by the album will be donated to Zebra Youth, the Orlando organization that provides crucial services to at-risk LGBTQ+ youth.
So, while the internet has proven to be more doomsday than deliverance, projects like Cloud Crew prove that positivity is still possible. A Is for ALBUM! is on Bandcamp and YouTube. It’s the first of what will be a series, with a second session already completed. So stay tuned.
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This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2025.
