Alex Henry Foster, Kimiyo, New Album
Written by Ricardo Langlois
May 24, 2024
Originally Published in La Metropole
This is an excerpt of a longer article in French.
On April 8, 2021, Alex H Foster sent me a handwritten letter with his album “Standing Under Bright Lights” recorded live at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. Before the release of “Kimiyo”, the author-composer had a double-graft cardiac surgery. It is with a lot of gratitude that we welcome his album “Kimiyo”.
Esoteric Progressive
Every song is an experience in a few phrases held together by a memorable shape. It is the life story of Alex Foster. The simple feeling of existing. The soft whispers of the wind (Of Dreams and Dust) is an event. So are the fleeing moons. Time goes by and takes us away. Like every author, Foster has developed a particular lexicon to describe his inner world. Abstract words. They are semantical nodes on musical chords. There is a hidden sense (esoteric). Every song is reinforced by a commentary. The spirit of the work is a radical anarchy. These are out-of-this-world universes that I have come to know through Pink Floyd (Ummagumma) or Radiohead (In Rainbows).
We are not talking about a small world, but a connection to new realities. Fully being on the conscience of time. On the song “Under a Luxuriant Sky” lies a sublime metaphor. The superposition of the constellation in an impressionist portrait of colors melting into one another.
The music from Kimiyo is inspired by testimonies of people that Foster met during a trip to Japan in 2010. Based on written correspondances, Foster developed a musical poetry. The symbolism surrounding the soul is a form of communication. A subjective plea first and foremost.
We are not talking about a small world, but a connection to new realities. Fully being on the conscience of time. On the song “Under a Luxuriant Sky” lies a sublime metaphor. The superposition of the constellation in an impressionist portrait of colors melting into one another.
The music from Kimiyo is inspired by testimonies of people that Foster met during a trip to Japan in 2010. Based on written correspondances, Foster developed a musical poetry. The symbolism surrounding the soul is a form of communication. A subjective plea first and foremost.
Like a child running after its shadow,
Hands stretched out, but soul bent
More than that of the prodigy (1)
In a press release about the story behind the project that is “Kimiyo”, there is a search of the self. An allegory of freedom against pre-formatted identity. Foster’s project is musical, atmospherical, and spiritual. It is the breath of Foster over the emptiness. A Quebecer that honors us. It is an important album that deserves a perfect note.
“We’ve been kindly granted a present
That has been freely bestowed
And forever will stand as a beloved demise
The clay lamp holds a flame
Into a passive murky atmosphere
Faltering its will to sing as melodies are waned
By sullen nocturnal candescence and its prey
Missing urges setting back into stumbling passions
As we let the dancing blooms
Follow the natural current of their ongoing gravitation
The humdrum fall shadows its funeral equinox in old poetries
Borrowing light from summer solstice
To forget that yearning marvels
Can be so ruthless and unmerciful
As we bury our dreamful
miscarriage in disregarded dirt
Knowing our suffering ordeals will soon be withdrawn
By another souvenir parading over our neglected ground
We’re confusing leaves, flying high, far away
With layers of our lives
We pull down by grief and other misfortunes
We burn up incense, we light up chancels”
(excerpt from Nocturnal Candescence, original English lyrics)
That has been freely bestowed
And forever will stand as a beloved demise
The clay lamp holds a flame
Into a passive murky atmosphere
Faltering its will to sing as melodies are waned
By sullen nocturnal candescence and its prey
Missing urges setting back into stumbling passions
As we let the dancing blooms
Follow the natural current of their ongoing gravitation
The humdrum fall shadows its funeral equinox in old poetries
Borrowing light from summer solstice
To forget that yearning marvels
Can be so ruthless and unmerciful
As we bury our dreamful
miscarriage in disregarded dirt
Knowing our suffering ordeals will soon be withdrawn
By another souvenir parading over our neglected ground
We’re confusing leaves, flying high, far away
With layers of our lives
We pull down by grief and other misfortunes
We burn up incense, we light up chancels”
(excerpt from Nocturnal Candescence, original English lyrics)
(1) Poem by Guy Goffette, free translation from French.
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