Rebecca Foon

In 1996, Foon moved to Montreal from Vancouver when she was 17, and soon became involved in the city's DIY music scene.[3] She has been a member of several groups associated with the post rock, experimental and chamber music scene of Montreal, including a number of musicians who had been involved with the local post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Arcade Fire.[4][5] Among her earliest projects, in 1995, Foon teamed up with Spencer Krug (Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown, and Moonface) and Rachel Levine (Cakelk), forming the instrumental string/piano/accordion-based trio Fifths of Seven.[6]

Foon (center) playing cello with Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra in 2007

She soon began playing cello and composing with Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, a band that formed in Montreal in 1999. Foon joined in 2000, when the band expanded from a trio into a sextet. Foon plays on the band's second album, released in 2001 on Constellation Records: Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward. The minimalist album was well received by music critics, with Allmusic giving it 4.5/5 stars,[7] and Pitchfork Media giving it 7.7/10.[8] The band took its first extensive tour in early 2001, traveling throughout Europe. That year Foon began playing in the associated band Set Fire to Flames as well.

The next Silver Mt. Zion album saw no change in the core line-up, excluding the inclusion of a makeshift choir. "This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing was released in 2003. The album was essentially created as a requiem for open and abandoned spaces in Montreal, as well as for similar loss and decay around the world, due to either urban development or military action.[9] Foon continued to perform live with the band while she began working on other projects. In 2008, Silver Mt. Zion toured Europe and North America. That summer Foon and several other members resigned from the band.[10]

In 2001, she became a member of the Montreal post-rock band Set Fire to Flames. The band released two albums before it split in 2003, and many of their tracks are very minimalist in nature, filled with ambient noise and various other non-musical sound effects, juxtaposed or combined with instrumental music.[11] 2001 saw her contribute to the band's debut Sings Reign Rebuilder. The album was recorded in a century old house apparently bound for destruction. As such, several sounds usually edited out of the recording process, including creaking floors, paper shuffling and outside noises such as police sirens were left intact on the final album. The album met with a glowing reception in the press; receiving 9/10 stars from Pitchfork Media,[12] 4/5 from Allmusic,[13] and 4.5/5 from Sputnikmusic.[14]

Two years later in 2003, she again contributed to Telegraphs in Negative/Mouths Trapped in Static by Set Fire to Flames. Recorded in a barn in Ontario, the release utilizes many different instruments, including guitars, basses, strings, horns, glockenspiel, marimba, bass clarinet, saw, cymbalon, hurdy-gurdy, music boxes, modified electronics, and contact microphones. The album was even more experimental than the previous, and met with mixed reviews from magazines such as Sputnik.[15]

Foon (far left) playing cello with Esmerine

In 2001, Foon co-founded the chamber rock group Esmerine along with percussionist Bruce Cawdron. The two had met while recording the debut album of Set Fire To Flames.[16] However, instead of using the guitar-focused sound of their other projects, the duo initially focused on percussion and cello, drawing on minimalist classical music and chamber music. The band initially performed their original music in gigs around Montreal.[16]

Esmerine released their debut album If Only a Sweet Surrender to the Nights to Come Be True in 2003.[17] Allmusic gave it 4/5 stars and called it "a sublime chamber rock album," stating "A French female name meaning quiet and sensitive, Esmerine is a fitting moniker for the overall sound."[18] They released their second album Aurora in 2005. Afterwards Foon dedicated more time to Thee Silver Mt. Zion, though she continued to periodically perform with Esmerine in Montreal, often bringing in guest artists or collaborating with other groups.[16]

The string/piano/accordion-based trio Fifths of Seven, which Foon had been performing with since 2004, released its first album in 2005: Spry from Bitter Anise Folds met with a positive reception.[6] 2005 saw Foon contribute cello to a number of other albums as well. Among these were From Cells of Roughest Air by The Mile End Ladies String Auxiliary, and Horses in the Sky by A Silver Mt. Zion. The album was the band's first to include lyrics on every track, with Foon contributing to the vocals, also helping mix the recording.[19] Before leaving A Silver Mt. Zion in 2008, she recorded cello and vocals for their 2008 album 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons. It met with a mixed review in Pitchfork and a glowing review in Allmusic[20] and other magazines such as Sonic Frontiers.[21]

As Esmerine, Foon and Bruce Cawdron began writing new music together in earnest in 2010.[16] For their third album La Lechuza, two new members joined the group; Sarah Pagé, a harp player, and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Barr.[16] Released in 2011, La Lechuza was listed as one of the top ten underground records of the year in Mojo.[22]

La Lechuza is dedicated to Lhasa de Sela, a dear friend of the band's, who died of breast cancer in Montreal on 1 January 2010. The band collaborated with Patrick Watson on the album and released a song entitled Snow Day for Lhasa, as well as created a site – snowdayforlhasa.com – dedicated in loving memory to Lhasa. After Barr and Page became occupied with their other projects, Esmerine added two new members to their touring lineup: percussionist Jamie Thomson and multi-instrumentalist Brian Sanderson. After a number of live performances the quartet began writing new material in early 2012.[16] After performing in Istanbul, the band was invited to return for an artist residency later that year.[23] After turning a rented loft into a makeshift recording studio,[24] the band recorded for two days in Istanbul[25] with Turkish musicians.[26] The album, Dalmak, was released in 2013 and awarded Instrumental Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2014. The Line of Best Fit gave it 7.5/10 stars, saying "they ultimately craft gorgeous, sparkling experimental noises that blur the line between post-rock, minimalist electronica and Turkish folk."[27]

She has had guest appearances on albums such as Just Another Ordinary Day by Patrick Watson in 2003, Lesbians on Ecstasy in 2004, Nisht Azoy by Black Ox Orkestar in 2006, and Do You Like Rock Music? by British Sea Power in 2011. Also in 2011, she was involved with the film and music project National Parks Project by Last Gang Records. Foon has performed with a range of musicians including Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and has composed for various film soundtracks including Shannon Walsh's feature-length documentary H2Oil with co-founder of Constellation Records, Ian Ilavsky.[3] The film is a documentary on the extraction of oil from tar sands in Alberta.[3]

Founding, I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us (2013)

In 2010 she began working on solo material, enlisting the help of Jamie Thompson on percussion and programming.[3] Handling vocals and cello, among the sounds Foon focused on were drone, no wave, improv, dream pop and minimalism, and the project Saltland was formed. After several years this culminated in the release of an LP for Constellation Records in 2013 under the name Saltland, entitled I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us.[28] Among the guest musicians on the album were Sarah Neufeld, Colin Stetson, Laurel Sprengelmeyer of Little Scream, and Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire.[3]

All of the songs were constructed from cello loops.[29] About the themes, Foon stated she was trying to create a "sonic landscape" that would allow her to explore themes such as urban landscapes, urban poverty and youth homelessness, environmental issues, and "the control/criminalisation of protest and political action, which is a huge issue in general and particularly in Montreal these days." About the mood of the compositions, "I don't consider the music to be reductively dark and cold, I was really seeking to hold a lot of different tones and feelings in tension: clear-eyed observation, reverie, meditation, activism/agency – and hope and warmth too. It’s not a pretty world these days, but I wanted to also leave the listener with a sense of hope."[29]

Reception

Exclaim.ca called it "a captivating combination of genres from dream pop to chamber music to ambient and shoegaze."[1] The Skinny gave it 4/5 stars and a positive review, calling her vocals "hypnotic" and stating the project "eschews the overwrought melodrama of [Thee Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire To Flames] for an intricate and understated approach, blending soft, tender vocals with strings, drones and electronica."[28] According to Beats Per Minutes, "The songs on this record seem to revel in the evocation of tangible places. Each song seems to unfold into a vast landscape of dust-covered hills and barren horizons-all encased in a gauzy analog haze."[29]

In 2013–2014, Saltland toured with Moonface throughout Canada and the United States. In 2017, she released her second album A Common Truth, that she partly co-wrote with Warren Ellis. [3]

A Silver Mt. Zion

• 2001: Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward
• 2003: "This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing
• 2005: Horses in the Sky
• 2008: 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons

Set Fire to Flames

• 2001: Sings Reign Rebuilder
• 2003: Telegraphs in Negative/Mouths Trapped in Static

Esmerine

• 2003: If Only a Sweet Surrender to the Nights to Come Be True
• 2005: Aurora
• 2011: La Lechuza
• 2013: Dalmak
• 2015: Lost Voices
• 2017: Mechanics of Dominion

The Mile End Ladies String Auxiliary

• 2005: From Cells of Roughest Air

Fifths of Seven

• 2005: Spry from Bitter Anise Folds

• 2013: "My Little Underground" (short animation by Elise Simard)
• 2012: "National Parks Project"
• 2012: "The Kiss" (short animation by Eva Cvijanovic)
• 2008: H2Oil (feature film directed by Shannon Walsh)[3]

• 2014: Evolution of a Criminal (A Film by Darius Clark Monroe)
• 2011: A Walk into the Sea (documentary directed by Esther Robinson)
• 2010: Higglety Pigglety Pop! or There Must Be More to Life (short animation by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski)
• 2007: Madame Tutli-Putli (stop motion-animated short film by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski)