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Boards of Canada
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Boards of Canada is a Scottish duo of the brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin, who have made music together since 1986. They grew up in Cullen and later in Balerno near Edinburgh, and lived in Calgary in Canada from 1979 to 1980. As children they were already experimenting with tape recorders and layering sound fragments over compositions of their own. The name comes from the National Film Board of Canada, an institution whose documentaries and animated films they saw as children. Only in 2005 did they say in an interview that they are brothers.
Music and breakthrough
In 1998 they signed with Warp Records and released the debut album Music Has the Right to Children, which includes Roygbiv, an album now considered a high point of electronic music. Geogaddi followed in 2002, darker in tone, and The Campfire Headphase in 2005 with more real instruments. In 2013 came Tomorrow's Harvest, inspired by film music, and in 2026 Inferno.
Influence
Their sound revolves around old synthesizer sounds, analogue equipment, samples and beats that resemble hip hop. It is influenced by the public broadcasting of the 1970s and is about nostalgia, childhood memories, science and the environment. The duo is regarded as a pioneer of intelligent dance music and of hauntology. They give almost no interviews and have not performed live since 2001.
Listening
Roygbiv · Boards of Canada, 1998Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1998Music Has the Right to Children
- 2002Geogaddi
- 2005The Campfire Headphase
- 2013Tomorrow’s Harvest
- 2026Inferno
Mentioned in other articles
- IDM Genre
In 1992 the Sheffield label Warp released the compilation Artificial Intelligence, and Aphex Twin, Autechre and Boards of Canada made music with complicated rhythms, unusual sounds and ambient-like melodies.