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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], Americana
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 born and raised in Colorado. She is known for her anachronistic voice and her work weaves 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 1998 to further her opera studies[5]. 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 byTin 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.[6]

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[7]. A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing followed in 2006, with Supposed guitarist Brian Goodman joining in unorthodox electrified interpretations[8] of 19th century German Lieder by Brahms, Schubert, Schumann and Wolf. Having relocated to Spain with her partner (Spanish guitarist Victor Herrero) she began recording under the radar, and released another psychedelic folk-rock album This Coming Gladness to quiet acclaim[9] [10].

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[11] (Fire has released the majority of her work over the subsequent decade). Living with in rural Spain in that period resulted in the Spanish language recordings Anda Jaleo (2010), a resetting of Garcia Lorca's piano/voice collection of popular Spanish song (Colección de Canciones Populares Españolas), and a 2011 follow-up folkloric recording, Perlas; both in collaboration with the Herrero band.

Imagined as a sung ballet [12] 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"[13] with "avant-garde soul" [14]. Co-produced by Foster with Andrija Tokic and Victor Herrero, who played guitar; other players included Paz Lenchantin on bass, Heather Trost on violin, and Ben Trimble on pueblo skin drums.

I'm A Dreamer (2013), given by Time Out magazine a five star review which acclaimed it as "a quiet masterclass in songwriting" with "self-possessed beauty that only grows with every listen"[15], 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"[16].

The chamber album No More Lamps in the Morning came out in 2016, [17] . Recorded in a church it features reworkings of songs drawn from her 2008 album This Coming Gladness and others.[18][19] She also re-interpreted her setting of Rudyard Kipling's 'Blue Roses' and introduced her new setting of 'My Dove, My Beautiful One' by James Joyce.[20]. That same year her Andalusian ensemble Mendrugo released a folk-pop album entitled More Amor

Bathed in "bucolic primitivism" [21] Faithful Fairy Harmony was listed as one of Wire Magazine's top fifty albums of 2018 [22]. The double record 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 [23].

In 2020 Josephine Foster appears in cameo as a casino singer for episode 3 of the HBO show Perry Mason[24]. 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[25]
  • 2016 No More Lamps in the Morning[26]
  • 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. ^ https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/which-way-to-the-new-weird-america-that-mellifluous-mojo/Content?oid=920387
  6. ^ "Josephine Foster & the Supposed". Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved February 29, 2008.
  7. ^ https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/which-way-to-the-new-weird-america-that-mellifluous-mojo/Content?oid=920387
  8. ^ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3325-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/
  9. ^ https://www.allmusic.com/album/this-coming-gladness-mw0000791521
  10. ^ https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/josephine-foster-coming-gladness
  11. ^ https://www.allmusic.com/album/graphic-as-a-star-mw0001937549
  12. ^ https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/blood-rushing-mr0003739903
  13. ^ http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2012/09/20/josephine-foster-blood-rushing-fire-records/
  14. ^ https://thankfolkforthat.com/review-josephine-foster-blood-rushing/
  15. ^ https://www.timeout.com/london/music/josephine-foster-im-a-dreamer-album-review
  16. ^ https://www.timeout.com/london/music/josephine-foster-im-a-dreamer-album-review
  17. ^ https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2016/02/josephine-foster-no-more-lamps-in-the-morning-album-review/
  18. ^ https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-exclusive-track-josephine-foster-forthcoming-album
  19. ^ https://www.tinymixtapes.com/music-review/josephine-foster-no-more-lamps-morning
  20. ^ "No More Lamps in the Morning". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
  21. ^ https://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2018/12/181212-atkinson-2018-albums
  22. ^ https://www.yearendlists.com/2018/12/wire-top-50-releases-of-2018
  23. ^ https://www.newsweek.com/end-f-ing-world-season-2-soundtrack-songs-potatoes-graham-coxon-netflix-1470135
  24. ^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2077823/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast
  25. ^ Josephine Foster. "Josephine Foster | Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
  26. ^ "No More Lamps in the Morning". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 7, 2016.
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