Consilience

Consilience is the alias of multi-instrumentalist Tasy Hudson. According to Merriam-Webster, consilience is also the linking together of principles from different disciplines especially when forming a comprehensive theory. The moniker fits well because that’s exactly what Hudson does musically. She melds bits and pieces of different genres to form her own brand of polished indie pop tunes. Her album Under Our Beds is due later this summer, and the lead single is “Soft And Slow.”

“Soft And Slow” isn’t some slow, sensual love track, despite its title. It’s a paragon of her deft blending abilities. Triumphant big band jazz horns soar over shimmering synths, cleverly syncopated boom-bap leaning drums, and classical piano tinges. Hudson’s rhythms and cadences switch as well, never settling into one aesthetic for too long without being disorienting due to a great command of pace and timing. Her confessional, candid lyrics hold everything together as the one penetrating constant among the constantly evolving sonics surrounding them. - Stereogum

In their bio, the band promises that “Consilience will transport you to dream world with sophisticated pop tunes that sail smoothly under Tasy Hudson’s hypnotic vocals,” and they certainly deliver. “Walking Through a Dead Night” is the second song off of Consilience’s upcoming album, Under Our Beds.

“I wanted to make a visually interesting song with contrasting imagery that’s at times a little absurd,” explains Tasy. “It’s about navigating your own thoughts compared to others, and how it can often feel alienating even though we’re all doing it. It’s dark, summery and isolating, exploring the compromises of what we want, what we should do and where we are. A bit of a nightmare masked in a pop song.”

“Walking Through a Dead Night” opens as the piano and strings intertwine to create a soothing duet. Drums join in and the tempo picks up as the vocals begin. Despite the suggestive title, the song is upbeat and optimistic. The band has a refreshing and tranquil alternative pop sound, while still managing to remain captivating. - Impose Magazine

EDMONTON — Telling someone that you have a secret isn’t the same thing as telling someone what the secret is. But once you tell someone that you have a secret, it’s impossible not to want to hear it. And once revealed, it’s part of the permanent record for good or ill. There’s a lot riding on it. Releasing an album is a lot like spilling a secret; there’s a lot of tension and excitement right before anyone hears it.

Under the moniker Consilience, Edmonton-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tasy Hudson is feeling that kind of excitement as she gets ready to lift the covers off her upcoming album entitled Under Our Beds.

BeatRoute sat down with Tasy to discuss making and releasing her first full-length album.

BeatRoute: Can you tell us about the name of your project Consilience?

Tasy Hudson: My dad suggested it as a band name. So I had to read about what it meant. It has to do with the unity of knowledge, or like combining disciplines to narrow it down to one truth. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to fit.

BR: What about the theme for Under Our Beds?

TH: It comes from a line in one of the songs, “Secrets.” Under all our beds, there’s secrets. The general theme is: those thoughts that you have that no one else will ever know that you have.

BR: Who was involved in making the album with you?

TH: I did a lot myself. I wrote, sang and played most of the parts on the album but Jesse Northey (of Jesse and the Dandelions) recorded and played on it. Aaron Parker and Sophie Heppell also played some parts on the album.

BR: How would you describe this album?

TH: It’s largely a chill album that flows.

BR: What made you want to start making music? Would you say it’s a secret?

TH: [Rolls eyes] I could answer every question like that.

BR: This is your first release, so how long have you been working on it?

TH: It’s been about two years in the making, but some of the songs are fairly old.

“Ride Out” is the oldest song I’ve written. I was still in university and I was feeling super stuck and just wanted to move on. That was about five years ago. The rest of the album has come together in the last two years.

BR: Since Under Our Beds has been in the works for a long time, has your taste changed drastically since starting work on the album?

TH: I think it’s just gone towards guitar-based music. This album is pretty piano heavy. Going towards guitar comes mostly from playing live. I’ve been tailoring my music to live venues more than I realized just ‘cause I like to rock out. But now I’m even going back to the piano again though, since I’ve been listening this album.

BR: You play a lot of different instruments. Would you say you’re fluid in terms of instrumentation choices?

TH: 100 per cent, yeah.

BR: Two years later, do you still feel close to the material that you cover on the album?

TH: For the most part, yeah. A lot of the songs are vague enough that I can draw new meaning from them.

BR: Why did you decide to release the album now?

TH: I just wanted to start doing it for real. I didn’t imagine that I’d promote the album originally, but then I got really invested. I thought that the songs weren’t garbage and it would be stupid to not do anything with them, and after two years, I didn’t want to wait too much longer.

BR: Do you make your music as a release for an emotion or thought?

TH: I can name songs that I’ve written where I wanted to “just get it out” and other times I start writing the song and don’t stop to dissect it until it’s done.

BR: Are the secrets that you allude to on Under Our Beds still secrets?

TH: Ummm… probably not. Also, it’d be fair to say that any anxiety related to keeping those secrets has vaporized.

Under our Beds is out July 8th, and to celebrate the release Consilience will be performing that evening at 9910 in Edmonton. At the show, Consilience will be joined by an all-star lineup including locals Marlaena Moore and Jessica Jalbert, as well as R. Ariel from Phoenix, AZ. Consilience also plays Saskatoon on July 15th (Vangelis Tavern), Vancouver July 22 (Cafe Deux Soleils), Victoria on July 23 (Copper Owl), and Calgary on July 28th (Broken City). - Beatroute AB

Consilience started out in 2011 as just Tasy Hudson playing synthesiser, guitar, and using a loop pedal. Hudson soon realised that her music would be better conveyed via a more conventional band arrangement, and so Louis Mendez, Dylan Howard and Aidan Lucas-Buckland were inducted into the band and late 2014 saw the release of the Walking Through a Dead Night EP. Now, a little over 18 months later the group, from Edmonton, Alberta, are releasing their début album, Under Our Beds. For Under Our Beds Hudson has once again taken centre stage, and demonstrated her musical chops, by providing most of the instrumentation herself.
Three of the album’s tracks – Grim, Home Soon, and Walking Through a Dead Night – are reworkings of songs from that first EP. The changes to these songs is more than cosmetic, yet less than structural. Grim has its reverb soaked, post-rock, guitar replaced by a more controlled, though still textured, synth part which is suitably dark and heavy at the songs commencement, as fits the lyrics – “grin and bear it/trust that when you fall asleep/you’ll wake/in the morning”. Simplifying the bass line for this track seems like a poor decision, but the synth and drums lend a reasonable punch to the song, and overall the transposition from indie infused post-rock to dark dream-pop is compellingly executed.
Home Soon is taken out of the garage and put into the studio, with piano replacing gritty guitar with sweet and airy melodies, while bass and drums are pushed back into the mix, leaving the track feeling more “adult”. A similar effect is achieved on Walking Through a Dead Night, which here undercuts its upbeat musicality with patches of downbeat strings. As is ebbs and flows, Sober proves surprisingly catchy, with Hudson providing vocal syncopations over the chorus’ twisting melody. It is a strong composition that charms over multiply listenings. Lead single, Soft and Slow, adds a decent dollop of quirk to proceedings by shifting its musical approach repeatedly. It is an interesting choice of song to represent the album.
Throughout Under Our Beds Hudson proves to be a talented musician, with her voice well suited to the dream-pop and indie-rock that Consilience produce, but it is difficult to see why she chose to be so hands on with this release. Grim, Home Soon, and Walking Through a Dead Night, were interesting and complete in their original form, and while these new adaptations are good in their own right they are also unnecessary, and in many ways lacking for the absence of other musical voices. Which proves to be Under Our Beds Achilles’ heel, with the album’s dream-pop vibe becoming monotonous by the record’s end. - Renowned for Sound

On Walking Through A Dead Night, Consilience are a band of gifted tricksters. What unfolds as gentle dream pop theatrics unfolds into something a lot more vital and energetic. Yet you can’t shake off the hazy atmospherics sonic architect Tasy Hudson has grown so fond of incorporating into the songwriting. On “Proud Soul,” the band cycle through its coda again and again, Hudson’s vocals reaching for the sky as the band begins to erupt all around her. It’s a conclusion that delivers. - Weird Canada

Let’s talk about synth-pop for a minute. It’s cheesy. It’s Spandau Ballet and Flock of Seagulls. At best, it’s a guilty pleasure. But, magically, Edmonton-based indie dream-pop band Consilience has managed to create a synth-pop EP that doesn’t feel at all tacky. The layering of the synth with guitar, bass, and drums creates a kind of tapestry of sounds that puts the listener into what can only be described as a pleasant pop-trance, and rich vocals take it to that next level of sophistication.

Walking Through a Dead Night is chock-full of pretty vocals and ethereal melodies. All four songs have a strong pop vibe, with a sound that feels sweet, soft, and light-as-air. However, it’s not all angel food cake. The heavy percussion in Home Soon and electric guitar riffs in Grim give the EP a rock ‘n’ roll edge, and the expertly layered instruments throughout create the complexity and maturity that give Consilience their unique charm.

Lead singer Tasy Hudson’s vocals are perfect. She has a bubblegum-sweet voice with a slight gravelly quality which makes the whole effect beautifully haunting – especially because it’s paired with the dreamy combination of Hudson’s synth and Louis Mendez’s guitar. The whole EP is rich, complex, and a little psychedelic, yet mellow enough that it’s easy to get lost in. Like a really good daydream.

Walking Through a Dead Night is very accessible and a great listen for anyone who wants to frolic in some light indie-pop. So, pretty much everyone. - Geyser Music

Edmonton’s Consilience recently released a 4- track EP entitled Walking Through A Day Night and it is all things dusky, dreamy and just a little haunted. The guitars and percussions drive and swirl, creating a deluge of mayhem while Tasy Hudson’s voice sweetly beacons and allures creating a sound that whispers of Azure Ray meets Local Natives with a little more crash.
The title track starts off on a jazzy note that smooths out as it progresses. The overall tone and vocal imagery such as “Walking through a dead night/ Sleeping through the daylight” reinforces the feel of dusk and half-conscious chaos while the melody creates a warm ambience that makes it worthy of several replays. Grim brings a psychedelic feel to the table coupled with more dreamy imagery slipping in and out of consciousness. Proud Soul finishes the EP on a note of lingering wistful sobriety after asking questions of the universe and coming to self aware realizations.
This is an EP for the pensive. A good soundtrack for those looking to ask hard questions of themselves and their world as they take a step forward. If you’re looking to forgo the streamers and noisemakers, maybe consider putting this offering from Consilience on for a few spins as you decide what to leave behind and take with you into 2015. - All Our Blaring Lights