(Post Rock) Alex Henry Foster releases 'Winter Is Coming In' live from Montreal Int Jazz Festival
ALEX HENRY FOSTER RELEASES LIVE FOOTAGE OF ‘WINTER IS COMING IN’
FROM LIVE ALBUM / DVD ‘STANDING UNDER BRIGHT LIGHTS’ FOR RELEASE ON APRIL 16th via HOPEFUL TRAGEDY RECORDS
RECORDED AT THE MONTREAL INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL
Watch it here:
Following The Son of Hannah, with over 200,000 views, the second live video from Alex Henry Foster’s forthcoming album, Standing Under Bright Lights has been released today, recorded gracefully for the forthcoming DVD and live album release from the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal back in 2019. The new album can be pre-ordered in advance of its release on April 16th from here via Hopeful Tragedy Records.
Building with strings into a cathartic, post-rock plateau, Winter Is Coming In sees Foster and his band, The Long Shadows at their very finest, drawing emotion through the everlasting storm and personal anguish in the writing of the track, that can be found in studio form on his debut album, Windows In The Sky. This album not only debuted at number 3 on the Canadian top 200, right behind Imagine Dragons and Muse, but that also stayed on the top 40 for a year after its initial release, scoring a nomination for best album of the year in Canada while being internationally acclaimed and added to several best albums shortlists all over the world.
Watch the new live footage of Winter Is Coming In, here.
“The amount of time I must have spent musing, contemplating, struggling and raging for this song only is probably too intense to even remember, if only glimpses of it all,” reflects Foster on his mental block of writing it. “Once the block was unleashed, via a call from a good friend of mine, I must have written all day and most of the night, again being honest about my broken childhood, the repeating abuses I’ve been a victim of, my inability to establish an intimate relationship, the sufferings, the functional depressions, the profound sadness I’ve learned to live with, how I entertained the idea of taking my own life… It wasn’t about understanding the concept of confession and faith no more, it was allowing those words to loudly carry a burden I was usually holding in the loneliest of all silences…”
After publicly announcing that his performance at the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal would be the sole performance he would do, along with the rumours regarding what would be a unique stage production, the concert became one of the very few sold-out representations the festival had over the years, prompting the international press to cover the concert and fans from Japan, Germany, UK, France, and the US to travel to Montreal for the occasion, which became the most sought-after event of the summer in Montreal.
Ignoring the increasing pressure and out-of-proportion expectations that such a hype typically creates, Foster and his 10-musician band would completely eclipse any of this high anticipation. Their set, almost 2 hours and 30 minutes, is now considered amongst the best concerts throughout the 40 years of the Festival and has been mentioned as one of the best presentation overall that year. But more importantly, to Alex, the immersive experience he had invited the audience to let go into had been so singularly successful that it set a new standard in the fan experience engagement.
Originally set to be released on October 8th of 2020, which would have been his father’s birthday, Foster decided to utilize the extra time the worldwide pandemic would give him to produce the album "Standing Under Bright Lights." He also decided to work on the concert film and on an upcoming book titled “If Only the Voices In My Head Couldn’t Lie”, to be released later in the spring of 2021.
Pre-order vinyl and DVD of Standing Under Bright Lights here from Hopeful Tragedy Records.
Tracklisting:
All songs were recorded live from Festival International De Jazz De Montréal, 07/05/19
The Son of Hannah 08:41
The Pain That Bonds 08:49
Winter is Coming in 11:19
Shadows of Our Evening Tides 19:25
The Hunter (By the Seaside Window) 21:18
Snowflakes in July 14:31
Summertime Departures 12:55
Lavender Sky 06:24
The Love That Moves (The End is Beginning) 08:27
Alex Henry Foster’s debut solo album, Windows in the Sky is out now, available at http://alexhenryfoster.com.
