Noel Fanaeian is an Edmonton-based composer with an electronic alias as hundredmillionthousand. He has presented work across 11 countries, sharing programs with William Basinski and Kara-Lis Coverdale and opening for Loscil. He has participated in workshops with Gavin Bryars, Laurel Halo, and Lyra Pramuk. The Toronto Star called Attention Span (2022) "one of the most compelling and brazenly accomplished releases of 2022." Paste Magazine called lp1 (2016) "a standout record of the year." A Conversation with Your Ninety-Year-Old Self is his debut work for choir.
his debut album, lp1, examined fractured collective identity and mental health through persian and filipino folk song fragments—an homage to his heritage—integrated within experimental hip-hop structures. for the vinyl release, fanaeian invited buyers to share what made them anxious, hand-wrote each confession onto a cognitive behavioural therapy worksheet with a personal note, and mailed it inside the jacket. this debut reached ranking on albumoftheyear.org, with acclaim from huffington post and paste magazine, who hailed “a standout record of the year. this record is like none other you will hear”.
his sophomore album, attention span, was a bleak commentary on modern relationships and romance subsumed by technology. sounds were constructed from consensual recordings of sexual moments between couples who met through online dating platforms. these recordings were granulated into indistinguishable material and recontextualized with voice, cello, integrating ambient and post-techno elements—intimacy as signal, humans as consumable data. the toronto star described the album as “one of the most compelling and brazenly accomplished releases of 2022.”
fanaeian’s current work extends toward large-scale choral and ambient composition, transforming the human voice into immersive harmonic textures—voices composed as pads and signal processed into electronics. his forthcoming album was developed in collaboration with pro coro canada and conductor michael zaugg, under the mentorship of three-time grammy-nominated composer benedict sheehan, and premieres in edmonton and calgary in 2026.