Saltland
I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us
Release Date: May 14, 2013
Genre(s): Electronic, Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Club/Dance
Record label: Constellation
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Album Review: I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us by Saltland
Acceptable, Based on 3 Critics
Based on rating 3/5
In 1847, Brigham Young led his flock of Latter-day Saints across Nebraska to rest in the settlement of Deseret in Utah. One could only imagine what it was like for those pioneers — who had traveled so far through blazing heat and blistering cold; who had lost friends and loved ones to sickness, schism, or violence; whose hearts were still weighted down by the memory of their prophet’s murder — to set eyes upon the Salt Lake Valley, a location specifically chosen for its undesirability to anyone else. Did they despair at the landscape laid out before them? Did they question the wisdom of their God and their prophets who had led them to this desolate corner of the earth? Or did they perhaps feel the faint stirrings of joy that one feels upon arriving home after a long and perilous journey? I Thought It Was Us But It Was All of Us, the debut from Rebecca Foon’s solo project Saltland, seems to capture some of this pioneer spirit, creating an atmosphere of pristine beauty and barely concealed danger.
Based on rating 5/10
Saltland is a project led by Canadian musician Rebecca Foon, best known as the cellist with the experimental and post-rock bands Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt. Zion, Esmerine and Set Fire to Flames. The first album by the group is a moody, somber collection of songs that unsurprisingly leans heavily on the dark tones of Foon’s cello, but that deliberately avoids the bombast of much of the work of those other bands.
Opinion: Excellent
Rebecca Foon's debut solo album was laid to tape at her home studio in Montreal, but it sounds like all outdoors. The Constellation Records mainstay – who's lent her cello chops to A Silver Mt. Zion, Set Fire To Flames and Esmerine over the years – is clearly no stranger to the more cacophonous end of the post-rock spectrum, but when left to her own devices seemingly enjoys exploring aspects of the world which that medium seems to rarely gaze upon; sunlight, breezes, and gently cooed pleasantries.
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