Josh Falling’s Compass Pairs Ukulele With Cinematic Orchestration

Josh Falling has spent more than two decades building Leaf in a Forest around deliberate contrasts. The music places bright, organic ukulele lines against expansive orchestral backing, creating a sound that feels raw by design. Compass, the project’s third streaming album, continues Falling’s practice of shaping each release around a central premise rather than assembling a collection of loose tracks.

Falling’s formal background is significant. His father is a professional musician, a cousin sings opera, and an uncle plays French horn for the German Opera. That training feeds arrangements that reference the energy of 2000s pop-punk — blink-182, New Found Glory, Yellowcard — and the songwriting approach of Twenty One Pilots. The result is not another confident pop statement. Falling writes about anxiety, uncertainty, and social displacement, letting vulnerability sit at the center of the music.

Previous Leaf in a Forest albums have used visual art and linguistic exercises as organizing ideas: Galleria drew from famous paintings, Ampersand worked through language constraints. Compass extends that method toward exploration, whether geographic or internal. A track like “Pirate Ships & Fairy Tales” has passed 250,000 streams, and the full catalog sits around 500,000 — modest numbers that suggest a dedicated niche rather than a broad commercial play. For Leaf in a Forest, that may be enough.