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Josephine Foster

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Josephine Foster
Background information
BornColorado, United States
GenresFolk, art song, psychedelic rock, experimental, New Weird America[1]
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter, musician, music producer
Instrument(s)Guitar, piano, harp, organ
Years active2000–present
LabelsFire Records, Windbell, Bo' Weavil Recordings, Locust Music,
Websitewww.josephinefoster.info

Josephine Foster is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Colorado. She is known for her anachronistic voice and music and lyrics that weave older styles with the modern.[2][3][4].

As a teenager she worked as a church singer, and aspired to become an opera singer. She moved to Chicago in 1999 to further her opera studies. While teaching music and voice at neighborhood schools she began to record demos of her own songs, resulting in her home recordings There Are Eyes Above (2000), influenced by Tin Pan Alley, and an album of children's songs, Little Life (2001). Besides playing solo she joined the bands The Children's Hour and Born Heller, with whom she released one record each respectively: SOS JFK in 2003, and the self titled Born Heller, in 2004. Also out in 2004 was Foster's new psychedelic rock album All the Leaves Are Gone (recorded with her backing band The Supposed). It drew comparison to Patti Smith and Jefferson Airplane.[5]

Her first (studio) solo album, Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You (2005, Locust Music), evoked American folk, blues and hymn forms of the early 20th century[6]. A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, released in 2006, featured Supposed guitarist Brian Goodman and is a cycle of unorthodox electrified interpretations[7] of 19th century German Lieder by Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Wolf. Having relocated to Spain with her partner the Spanish guitarist Victor Herrero, she began recording under the radar, and released another psychedelic folk-rock album This Coming Gladness to quiet acclaim[8] [9].

In 2009 a sequence of Foster's settings of Emily Dickinson poems, 27 austere miniatures for voice and guitar, were recorded in the remote Spanish mountains. Titled Graphic as a Star, the album was released by the British independent record label Fire Records[10]. Working with musical partner Victor Herrero in rural Spain at that time, they began collecting and arranging collections of folk songs, resulting in the recordings Anda Jaleo (a resetting of Garcia Lorca´s piano/voice transcriptions of Spanish songs), and its follow-up Perlas.

Imagined as a ballet chanté [11] and built upon the rhythm of a heartbeat, Blood Rushing brought her back to Colorado. The album's music relays a "mythical western movie imbued landscape"[12] with "avant-garde soul" [13]. Co-produced by Foster with Andrija Tokic and Victor Herrero, who played guitars; other players included Paz Lenchantin on bass, Heather Trost on violin, and Ben Trimble on pueblo skin drums.

I'm A Dreamer (2013), was given five stars by TimeOut magazine, and acclaimed as "a quiet masterclass in songwriting that perfectly invokes old Americana" [14] was recorded in Nashville and co-produced by Andrija Tokic. On this album she "returned to the early 20th century Americana of her 2005 debut ‘Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You’, in the excellent company of a nine-piece band"[15].

The chamber album No More Lamps in the Morning came out in 2016 [16] . Recorded in a church [17] it features reworkings of songs drawn from her 2008 album This Coming Gladness and others[18]. She also iinterprets her settings of Rudyard Kipling's 'Blue Roses' and 'My Dove, My Beautiful One' by James Joyce.[19]

Bathed in "bucolic primitivism" [20] Faithful Fairy Harmony was listed as one of Wire Magazine's top albums of 2018 [21]. The double album was recorded in Nashville once more by Andrija Tokic, and with many of the same players from her 2013 album I'm A Dreamer, including Victor Herrero (guitars), Gyða Valtýsdóttir (cello), Chris Scruggs (pedal steel guitar), and Jon Estes (bass).

In 2019 the title song from Foster's album I'm A Dreamer was featured in Season 2, episode 7 of the British television show The End of the F***ing World [22].

In 2020 Josephine Foster appears in cameo as a casino singer for episode 3 of the HBO show Perry Mason[23]. She sings covers of 'Aventurera' by Agustín Lara and 'Son de la Loma' by Miguel Matamoros in original arrangements created for the series with Victor Herrero; 'Cuando Vienes del Monte' and 'Brillante Estrella' from their 2011 record Perlas (Fire Records) are also featured in the episode.

Discography

  • 2000: There Are Eyes Above
  • 2001: Little Life
  • 2003: SOS JFK (with The Children's Hour)
  • 2004: All the Leaves Are Gone (with the Supposed)
  • 2004: Born Heller (S/T, Born Heller)
  • 2005: Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You
  • 2006: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
  • 2008: This Coming Gladness
  • 2009: Graphic as a Star
  • 2010: Anda Jaleo (with The Victor Herrero Band)
  • 2012: Perlas (with The Victor Herrero Band)
  • 2012: Blood Rushing
  • 2013: I'm A Dreamer[24]
  • 2016 No More Lamps in the Morning[25]
  • 2016: More Amor (with Mendrugo)
  • 2018: Faithful Fairy Harmony

References

  1. ^ Mehr, Bob (November 3, 2005). "Which Way to the New Weird America?; That Mellifluous Mojo". Chicago Reader. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
  2. ^ "Endearingly Odd Musician Casts a Spell". Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  3. ^ https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/which-way-to-the-new-weird-america-that-mellifluous-mojo/Content?oid=920387
  4. ^ https://drownedinsound.com/releases/4192/reviews/12890-josephine-foster-hazel-eyes-i-will-lead-you
  5. ^ "Josephine Foster & the Supposed". Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved February 29, 2008.
  6. ^ https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/which-way-to-the-new-weird-america-that-mellifluous-mojo/Content?oid=920387
  7. ^ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3325-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/
  8. ^ https://www.allmusic.com/album/this-coming-gladness-mw0000791521
  9. ^ https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/josephine-foster-coming-gladness
  10. ^ https://www.allmusic.com/album/graphic-as-a-star-mw0001937549
  11. ^ https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/blood-rushing-mr0003739903
  12. ^ http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2012/09/20/josephine-foster-blood-rushing-fire-records/
  13. ^ https://thankfolkforthat.com/review-josephine-foster-blood-rushing/
  14. ^ https://www.timeout.com/london/music/josephine-foster-im-a-dreamer-album-review
  15. ^ https://www.timeout.com/london/music/josephine-foster-im-a-dreamer-album-review
  16. ^ https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2016/02/josephine-foster-no-more-lamps-in-the-morning-album-review/
  17. ^ https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/josephine-foster-no-more-lamps-morning
  18. ^ https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-exclusive-track-josephine-foster-forthcoming-album
  19. ^ "No More Lamps in the Morning". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
  20. ^ https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2018/12/181212-atkinson-2018-albums
  21. ^ https://www.yearendlists.com/2018/12/wire-top-50-releases-of-2018
  22. ^ https://www.newsweek.com/end-f-ing-world-season-2-soundtrack-songs-potatoes-graham-coxon-netflix-1470135
  23. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2077823/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
  24. ^ Josephine Foster. "Josephine Foster | Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  25. ^ "No More Lamps in the Morning". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
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