Alex Henry Foster – “Alchemical Connection”
(Song Premiere)
Originally Published in Chorus.FM on July 10, 2024.
Written by Adam Grundy.
Read the original article here.
Today I’m thrilled to share with everyone the latest single from Alex Henry Foster called “Alchemical Connection.” The newest song from this talented artist comes from the newly announced LP A Measure of Shapes and Sounds that will be released everywhere music is sold on September 20th. Alex Henry Foster shared, “‘Alchemical Connection’ is the contemplative portrait of a blooming dawn I had the mesmerizing privilege of witnessing in the dead cold of winter, through the Virginian mountain horizon where I live. I was fascinated by the slow awakening of colors growing into one another, evolving into a stream, and redefining impermanent beauties. It reminded me of the bright shining lights dancing over the ocean of crystal pieces covering the awakening morning in the middle of the desert, where silence murmurs about inner peace and where wind carries the nature of what it feels like to be truly alive. This song evokes those profound sensations.” If you’re enjoying the new single, please consider pre-ordering the new LP here. I was also able to catch up with this songwriter for a brief interview below.
Can you describe the transition from Kimiyo to A Measure of Shape and Sounds? How did your creative process evolve between these two projects?
The highly challenging essence of my emotional circumstances pretty much dictated the nature of my daily motions at the time and, as such, my creative streams. Kimiyo was crafted during the recovery from the particularly complex and near-fatal heart surgery I had. I wasn’t able to talk, was still incredibly fragile physically, and highly troubled psychologically. You can feel it through the whole emotional journey the album would organically become. Its sonic multi-layering is rich, the arrangements are as profound as they are complex, and the lyrical counterpoint is affectively charged. It’s a movement made of several different stops, or chapters, where we are both witnesses and protagonists.
As for A Measure of Shape and Sounds, it’s an intimate and direct form of abandonment, all defined by the inner turmoil of a personal let-go. In many ways, it’s a view from within, and to do so, it had to be recorded live, stripped down from any studio artifices, and deprived of any musical veils usually used to hide the feelings that need to be expressed without being revealed. If Kimiyo was a challenging type of neo-classical prog dressed with post-rock colors and shades, A Measure of Shape and Sounds was by far the most difficult one of the two albums to craft, even to share. It is a reminder that the most challenging elements aren’t about complexity or simplicity but about the measure of transparent honesty you are willing — or unwilling — to define in any of the creative endeavors that truly matter in the end.
As for A Measure of Shape and Sounds, it’s an intimate and direct form of abandonment, all defined by the inner turmoil of a personal let-go. In many ways, it’s a view from within, and to do so, it had to be recorded live, stripped down from any studio artifices, and deprived of any musical veils usually used to hide the feelings that need to be expressed without being revealed. If Kimiyo was a challenging type of neo-classical prog dressed with post-rock colors and shades, A Measure of Shape and Sounds was by far the most difficult one of the two albums to craft, even to share. It is a reminder that the most challenging elements aren’t about complexity or simplicity but about the measure of transparent honesty you are willing — or unwilling — to define in any of the creative endeavors that truly matter in the end.
How does A Measure of Shape and Sounds fit into your multidisciplinary artistic project Voyage à la Mer?
I would say that it’s a form of evolving soundtrack, inviting us all to define the nature of its journey by our own personal immersion. That’s why, once in the context of the upcoming movie (the third installment in Voyage À La Mer), it serves as the intimate necessity intertwining every Kimiyo song/chapter together, offering glimpses of consciousness, of affective clarity even, by acting as an emotional thread throughout the whole film sequencing. It is an unspoken narrative acting as an invisible link, a conductor, between every moment of its unconscious awakening. It’s somehow what will ultimately make the whole project cohesive as one creative body of work.
You painted a vivid picture of a winter dawn when you described the Virginian sunrise that inspired this track. How important is visual imagery in your songwriting process, particularly for “Alchemical Connection”?
It’s essential. For every single one of my art projects, whatever their nature, imagery is incredibly fundamental. It sets a particular vibe, a sort of tone. It offers elements of a scene where it takes place, perfumes even, all that for anyone willing to let go and dwell in it to define or redefine the whole narrative, creating different points of view depending on the emotional angles through which we look, depending on how deep within the scene we are disposed to assert ourselves. That’s why, in the specific case of Alchemical Connection, I transposed the uniqueness of such a moment into a universal canvas where everyone can see themselves. It’s what is specifically lived, expressed, and experienced in that setup that makes it so profoundly personal. For me, it was a last sunrise peacefully communed with one of my cherished pups before he passed. For others, it may be the beginning of a love story, a new adventure, the end of a long, struggling night, a newborn faith in dreams. Whatever it might be, it’s as consequential an instant as we want that particular moment to be. The story may start, end, evolve, or transform itself. It’s as limitless as the faith we have for better tomorrows to come.
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