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Joshua Van Tassel
Crossworlds
Backward - 2018
Michael Panontin
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Joshua Van Tassel's imagination is fertile, if nothing else. His 2015 Understar EP, the first record produced at his Dream Date studio, was a sweeping sonic paean to, of all things, the humble squid. Van Tassel pulled those epic tracks out of a genuine fascination for life itself, writing at the time that it is "such an extraordinary and elusive creature that one can only logically assume it originates from somewhere deep in space".
The seeds of his Crossworlds project started to germinate around the same time. Here again, there is that curious melding of the terrestrial and the extra-terrestrial, only this time it is an elderly woman who is left to defend her small island from some mysterious otherworldly force. "Crossworlds came to be almost three years ago when I had an idea for a story," he recently told CM. "Most of the instrumental music I make is really the score to some imaginary scene that plays in my mind while I work, and with this album I wanted to try to present something that got as close as possible to experiencing it the same way I do when writing it."
But this is no mere imaginary soundtrack. These nine tracks are actually the score to a novella co-written by Van Tassel and Jordan Crute, and illustrated by Geordan Moore. Much of the music continues in a similar vein to his previous two discs, which means plenty of richly textured pieces with synths, strings, guitars and drums all seemingly in the forefront simultaneously. It is a brilliant effect and not entirely accidental. Van Tassel positioned five mics at varying positions throughout the studio, with no close-mics on any individual instrument or amp. "I wanted them to blend all the timbres and sounds into one voice that couldn't be identified as a guitar or keyboard etc.," he explained. "We would read the draft of the chapter we were working on together and then begin tracking variations on the theme by using different octaves, effects and playing styles. I then took that material and built the rest of the piece around it, and had strings scored for each piece."
Like all great soundtracks, Crossworlds works apart from the film - or in this case the book - imagery. And unsurprisingly, the strongest tracks are those dominated by Van Tassel and his almost limitless cache of keyboards, like the dreamy 'Chapter 6: A Turning Tide' or the more straight-up 'Chapter 3: The Infirmary'. 'Chapter 2: The Old Woman' harkens back a bit to seventies prog, with its delicate dance of synth and guitar (the latter by Dean Drouillard), as well as Drew Jurecka's silky string arrangements, which are just about everywhere on the record.
Vinyl dweebs will have to wait a bit for this one, though. Van Tassel has chosen to release Crossworlds in book format only, and limited to just 200 copies at that. The admittedly avid reader is unapologetic about it. "We're so bombarded with screen time that I was hoping to create an immersive imagination experience that people could sink into and enjoy without needing to look at a laptop or phone."
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Joshua Van Tassel
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