Joshua Van Tassel

I’m back from a super fun tour of the Uk with my good friend Kate Rogers, and I’ve got plenty of little aural snapshots to help me remember things. Here’s a few that I’ve heard so far from London that stand out - -

Ah the tube. So fast, and so very small. Tall folks like me have to watch out for yellow bars and people moving very quickly and quietly.

A nice classic London church, peaceful, old, and full of tourists like me.

Here’s possibly my favorite sound I’ve heard so far. There’s a great neighborhood called Camden Town, kind of like a Toronto Kensington market area. Lots of shopping, lots of food, and a whole lot of people. I recorded this in a tiny tiny little boutique that just sold hats that were way to hip for me to even attempt to put on my head. It came from a tiny little portable record player, and it was the most calming thing I’ve heard in a while. I would have stood there all day, but the owner seemed a little suspicious of my slack jawed glassy stare and my phaser looking device that I was pointing at his beloved french 7 inch…

More to come as I get myself together…..

If you’ve read this blog before, then you know I have an on going love affair with sounds of all kinds. Something I love to do is record regular everyday sounds and sneak them into my music making by flipping or reversing or destroying them. Sometimes though, I come across sounds that are just really interesting on their own. Like washing my plastic cutting board. It sounds like a combination between a thunder storm and a spaceship taking off. Today,I love it.

got married this weekend - (and yes I’m aware this picture is pretty bad, but it’s the only one I have….)

let me hang out with their babies -

….and fed me some cucumbers they grew in their garden.

I also spent some time producing a tune with the lovely Sarah Kurtis the other day, and we’re working on a sweet sounding little thing that goes like this so far….

[audio:

I know I’ve said that I try to update this site daily, but try is the operative word. Lot of things happening, had a great weekend. I spent some time -

in a car hearing things like this ( which I think is a really nice sound)

getting a speeding ticket ( which I don’t like at all, but the officer was actually quite friendly. Also, am I legally or morally obliged to tell him I was recording?)

I checked out the tenori-on ( which I think is not that great to be honest)

I did some recording -

and I made a bunch of music with a bunch of good friends in Montreal, and at the Pride stage, and the Tranzac, and my home. Ok, we’re all caught up now. Happy Canada Day, and I’ll see you tomorrow, I promise…

…of my dehumidifier because it sounds like this right now..

It reminds me of a sick jackal. Not that I’ve ever really heard one, but that’s the sound I’m quite sure it would make.

This one looks cuter then sick, but you get the point.

you’d look like this -

and this is how today sounds to you, from flower level on the ground -

I spent a great long weekend in Prince Edward county, where I ate some great food, tried on a really expensive pair of old spanish leather shoes, heard raccoons screaming and being shot at, and met some nice people. Here’s one of my favorite sounds from the weekend ( with the exception of raccoon/gunfire, which I didn’t record because I was too busy being completely terrified.)

I’ve been reading a great Oliver Sacks book lately called “An Anthropologist on Mars”, and decided that it deserved a bit of musical treatment. All the sounds in this one come from the book itself, teased and cajoled of course. The book itself is a bit of a case study of 7 different neurological mysteries, and it really brings home how much I take my senses for granted. For example, the first story is of a painter who has a car accident, and is now only able to see in Grey scale. He not only lost the ability to see color at all, but the memory of color itself is gone. Scary stuff.

Anyway, to any higher power that may or may not exist somewhere in the cosmos or otherwise, thanks for letting me wake up having everything intact today. I’m not saying we all need to drop to our knees and say 87 hail someones, but maybe we should just be more aware of the fact that being able to see what we’re typing and hear what we’re making is pretty cool. Not to be preachy…..not trying to lecture……..you know what I mean….

These are the sights and sounds of Montreal’s industrial district late at night. There’s all sorts of crazy loft spaces within this area, including one we played at called The Pound. People in that city really do stay up all night, I swear..

This little bird was singing a crazy song this morning and I thought I’d share it with you today. I’m with you little brother. It was a long winter and it’s officially spring.

What does this have to do with spring? nothing. Funny little men on wooden cats makes me snicker, that’s all.