This is a quiet and comfortingly bleak album. Tandem Cascade’s sole member, Marc Zajack, makes terrific use of tape warble and decay. Rest Assured is draped in a soft blanket of third-generation tape-loss. It’s done so deliberately, it’s entrancing.
The opening title track plays a warbling tone against an effected field recording of water. Melodic, relaxing and disassociating all at once. Music for a Yoga class in a black room with sigils painted on the walls.
Rest Assured is also a painterly album. Zajack is working through a small handful of ideas, all closely related. Like a series of paintings where we can see the artist explore the use of new motifs, Rest Assured moves back and forth between just a few pieces; field recordings, the broken tape deck effect, rumbling decimated tape noise, and minimal melodies. There is a continual call and response throughout the recording, giving the tape a concise feel. Again, adding to the comforting feel of the album. The listener never drifts too far from the point of departure; the shore never dips below the horizon.
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