ArtistInfo

Foal
Foliage

Album CA 2004 on Cognition Audioworks label
Dance (Techno, Minimal, Ambient)

Saskatoon's Chad Munson (aka Foal) has been composing and performing music since 1996. Playing in noise rock bands as a teenager, Chad's interest in electronic music grew greatly due to the influences of friend and collaborator Jake Hardy (Holzkopf, Dainty Deathy Recordings). After many four-track experiments, Chad enlisted his first computer in 1997. After being frustrated with venues and the local music scene, the December 5th music cooperative was formed in 1998. This co-op with Hardy, Max Haiven (No Type), and Brennan Hart (Knar) was created to promote experimental electronic music in Saskatoon. With an overwhelming response to the music Dec5 promoted, 2 limited edition CD compilations were released which featured Munson's first electronic pieces. After a year long break from producing electronic music to focus more attention on his now-defunct band Blood Music, Munson returned to electronic music in 2000 as Foal. This new entity was created as a vehicle to push the usage of guitar in electronic music. Foal's debut album, Re:construction, was released by online label Nishi (a sublabel of No Type) in early 2003. The concept of Re:construction was to make accessible minimal techno and microsound from very limited resources; every sound on the entire 45 minute album was created from a 10 second sample of his acoustic guitar-- no more, no less. Foal on Foliage: "Like all my music, Foliage is an attempt to use guitar sounds with the same aesthetic as electronic sounds in minimal techno music. On Foliage all of the sounds other than percussive ones were created from electric guitar samples. The song 'Foliage' utilizes samples from early Blood Music recordings. Guitar is my main instrument of choice, so i try to use it in everything I do musically?I see myself as a guitar player, not as an electronic musician. As for the techno aspects of the record, it was an attempt to make minimal techno I actually enjoyed. My main problem with 99% percent of the techno I hear is that I don't like the sounds that are used, Ifind them too campy or predictable, and the culture too hedonistic. But in turn, I love the repetitive nature of techno--the slight changes over great periods of time, the slow evolution of the music. I have always loved what people were doing with techno, but I couldn't stand the sounds they used to make it with--they just didn't have enough of an organic sound to keep me interested. My music isn't meant to be danced to, it was written strictly with headphone-listening in mind. My big influences on this record are Vladislav Delay, Loscil, Steve Reich, Polpo Polmo, and My Bloody Valentine."

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