I Thought It Was Us But It Was All Of Us - Saltland (2013)

Rebecca Foon is a cellist, singer, and composer. She’s been in several groups, but Saltland is more or less her solo project.

This is record feels to me like a slow moving river where it doesn’t look like much is happening on the surface, but there are currents beneath. If you listen past the surface sheen, there is a ton of detail that’s easy to miss.

Most of the sound seems to come from the cello (maybe overdubbed, or complemented with other instruments in places) and the sonorous vocals that have the same kind of slow attack. Melodies, when they emerge, tend to be so slow they’re hard to keep track of. Just when the whole thing is in danger of fading into the background, you get a pick-me-up from some snappy percussion or a more defined beat or pattern to keep you interested.

I’m counting this in my “concentration music” category because while there are vocals, they’re not very intrusive and they just add to the overall atmosphere.

Tracks I Liked:

Golden Alley - The record starts out pretty conventionally with a beat and a bassline, before we get plunged into much more esoteric territory later.

Unholy - One of those more esoteric tracks, with a repeating plucking pattern and layers of sound added on gradually

Colour of the night sky - a loping beat and well-defined melody to bring some structure.