Alex Henry Foster
Music Suggestion
Alex Henry Foster is a Canadian artist, singer, musician, writer and activist. He cultivates every aspect of composition: words, sounds, images, videos and compositions. Telling stories of loss, abandonment, romance, drama and tragedy, always with a shroud of hope.
Chatting with one of my contact on Messenger some time ago, it was almost Summer, the name of Alex Henry Foster emerged. Maxime spoke enthusiastically about it: “You should listen to it!”
Max was right, even if at first glance, the long-lasting pieces and the beautiful videos, gave me an idea, a mood of Autumn, a scent of cold and Winter.
So, here we are.
The first song I heard was “The Power of the Heart”, a poignant reinterpretation of an unknown Lou Reed song. Alex’s version is beautiful and unforgettable.
With a magnificent video that reinforces the words full of drama, romance and melancholy. And what music! A songwriting Canadian post rock, one of the most beautiful, loops and orchestral arrangements. Stupendous!
Noises became sounds, and musical arrangements evolved into some sort of spiritual uplift for me, turning it all into a celebration of what can’t be owned, measured, or defined, a boundless and infinite transformative ascension that can only be experienced once shared and given away. That is for me the true everlasting nature that is the power of the heart.
Alex Henry Foster
Liberating in its contemplation.
Compassionate in its acceptance.
Transformative in its incarnation.
Two are still my favorite songs, “Summertime Departures” from the first solo record “Windows In The Sky“. A very captivating song, violent noise, as well as the lyrics that echo in Alex’s voice. A bitter confession of a conflict with his father, perhaps never subsided. Not even during an exhausting illness and a tragic loss.
Written between Tangier and Montreal, “Windows in the Sky” has been crafted in a fragile state of emotional isolation following the passing of his father, a devoted believer to whom he was estranged, after a long battle with cancer. Foster explores the nature of faithlessness, sorrows and solitude while trying to find hopeful directions within the disorientation and the confusion brought about by grief.
Alex Henry Foster
The second song is titled “The Hunter (By the Seaside Window)“, accompanied by a short film directed by French filmmaker Jessie Nottola (Tinariwen, Tiken Jah Fakoly, Arthur H), inspired by the likes of David Lynch.
The Hunter (By the Seaside Window) emerged from a 30-minute jam of a noisy, out-of-breath and tortured kind of dark, spiritual, emotive, and redemptive sonic journey. It reflects on the symbiotic notion of inner struggles feeding the growing illness of the relationship between the different entities we kept on feeding within oneself, as a sort of an out-of-step addiction to pain and resignation, but also to hopelessness and mercy, as much as to salvation and grace. The cycle only ends once we decide to let go, whatever it may mean for anyone’s beliefs… as we are both the hunter and the prey
Alex Henry Foster
Alex Henry Foster is an artist that needs to be discovered.
A discovery, a sonic journey that will require your time, your patience and your most attentive and sensitive listening approach.
Don’t be musically “faint-hearted” or impatient, the listening to the albums “Windows in the Sky” and “Standing Under Bright Lights – Live…” (two gems), as well as watching the videos and live performances, will make you love the musical compositions proposals. And above all, the sung confessions, sometimes whisper in a low voice, sometimes shouted, by this eclectic Canadian artist, will make you think and open up to old “déjà-vu” and future ways of the past.
The vicissitudes of life that happen in each of us, come to life in music, thanks to Alex, his talent, his poetics and his compositional flair.
