Rebecca Foon By Brigitte Henry 2019
REBECCA FOON, THE COMPOSER/CELLIST FROM SALTLAND, ESMERINE AND THEE SILVER MT. ZION PRESENTS HER FIRST EPONYMOUS RELEASE WAXING MOON INCOMING FEBRUARY 21ST ON CONSTELLATION
LISTEN TO THE TRACK “DREAMS TO BE BORN“
FEATURING GUEST PLAYERS INCLUDING RICHARD REED PARRY (ARCADE FIRE), SOPHIE TRUDEAU (GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR), JACE LASEK (THE BESNARD LAKES), AND A VOCAL DUET WITH PATRICK WATSON ON THE SINGLE “VESSELS”
Rebecca Foon, the composer and musician behind Saltland and Esmerine (and former long standing member of Silver Mt. Zion) presents a new album entitled Waxing Moon incoming February 21st via Constellation.
While best known as an incomparable cellist crafting textural soundscapes and instrumental chamber-rock in the aforementioned projects (and more recently recognized for her creative and organisational work as co-founder of Pathway To Paris), this new collection of songs finds Foon emphasising piano and voice with striking intimacy and elegance, showcasing a captivating evolution in her always resplendent songwriting. The climate crisis has profoundly framed Foon’s political and artistic life for many years now, and Waxing Moon finds her writing and singing her most arrestingly direct yet poetic words, tapping universal and personal heartbreak in both despair and hope.
With Waxing Moon, Rebecca sets side the Saltland moniker – her electronically-tinged string-centric project from the past five years – to release this more personal new work under her own name.
The album’s ten songs are predominantly minimal and delicate, immersive and hauntingly beautiful – with vocal-driven tracks booked-ended by piano-based instrumentals, along with one up-tempo guitar-driven number (“Wide Open Eyes”) that closes out Side One.
While piano figures most prominently on the record, Foon continues to play cello on several tracks, complemented by gentle touches from a close coterie of musical guests including Richard Reed Parry (Arcade Fire) and Mishka Stein (Patrick Watson) on acoustic and electric basses, Sophie Trudeau (Godspeed You Black Emperor) on violin, Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes) on electric guitar, and Patrick Watson as co-vocalist on the dreamlike “Vessels”. Foon co-produced the album with Lasek at Montréal’s Breakglass studio and it sounds glorious. Waxing Moon is Rebecca Foon’s first eponymous release: a sublimely stunning, bracingly intimate, glimmeringly full-hearted new chapter in her celebrated musical catalogue.
Foon is co-founder of Pathway To Paris, a non-profit organising concerts for climate action/awareness since 2015 that have featured Patti Smith, Michael Stipe,Naomi Klein, Thom Yorke, Cat Power, Bill Mckibben, and many others; all Waxing Moon royalties shall be donated to Pathway and its “1000 Cities” Green Transition initiative in collaboration with the United Nations.
Cover Rebecca Foon Waxing Moon
1. New World
2. Pour
3. Another Realm
4. Ocean Song
5. Wide Open Eyes
6. Waxing Moon
8. Vessels
9.This Is Our Lives
10. New World Reprise
Rebecca Foon artist info:
https://cstrecords.com//artist/saltland-rebecca-foon/