Saltland is a project led by Montreal-based cellist Rebecca Foon, best known as co-founder of contemporary chamber group Esmerine and member of Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flames, The Mile End Ladies String Auxiliary and Fifths of Seven. Foon began composing solo work in 2010, featuring multi-layered cello and hushed, stark vocals that explored the intersection of drone, no-wave, improv, dream-pop and minimalism. Joined by Jamie Thompson (Unicorns, Esmerine) on percussion, programming and signal processing, Foon’s live performances in Montreal and abroad over the past two years have seen her sound progress towards gently rhythmic and electronic territory as well. She has transfixed audiences with this new music while sharing the stage with Mary Margaret O’Hara, Julia Kent, Nat Baldwin and Sam Amidon, among others. As her largely home-recorded debut album began taking shape throughout 2011, with numerous guests contributing to various pieces, Foon adopted the Saltland moniker for this work.
 
Rebecca Foon has called Montreal home since moving from Vancouver at age 17 in 1996 and has been a fixture of Montreal’s DIY music scene ever since, playing with countless local ensembles in a wide range of contexts and on albums by Vic Chesnutt, Islands, British Sea Power, Carla Bozulich, Land Of Kush and Hrsta among others. She has collaborated in concert with Patti Smith and Warren Ellis (separately), composes work for short film with the National Film Board Of Canada, was a core participant in the National Parks Project music and film documentary initiative, has performed with Tanya Tagaq and as a support player for other Inuit musicians, and scored the documentary H2Oil about Alberta’s tar sands oil extraction. Foon pursues all this musical activity alongside her role as a member of Sustainability Solutions Group, a national Canadian urban sustainability cooperative.