Neil Foster – Queen City Sounds and Art

Neil Foster Evokes the Hushed Energy of the World After Sunset on “Nightfall”

With the gradual replacement of sunlight with the shadowy low light and darkness of the night sky, Neil Foster arranges layers of airy drones and streams of melodic tone on “Nightfall.” What is gradual becomes an engulfing flow of cool sounds and echoing winks of single note arpeggios dotting the soundscape and rays of subdued sonic luminosity streaming through the murk like rays of moonlight. The cover image for the single shows hills shaded and billowy, gray clouds partially masking the setting sun. The song embodies the kind of hush immediately after the sun sets and before full moonrise and depending on the time of the year when the evening can seem darkest. But Foster also conveys the underlying activity that continues well after daylight takes a break before the next morning but with a sometimes subdued energy as diurnal activity transitions to the nocturnal. Foster’s composition maintains a sense of liminal wonder and tranquility that one doesn’t regularly hear in the realm of music and the track begins as it ends with a subtle fade out into what comes next. Listen to “Nightfall” on Spotify and follow Neil Foster at the links below.

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Neil Foster Brings a Deep Awareness of the Tranquil Interplay of Natural Phenomena on “Summer Falls”

Neil Foster establishes a sense of place at the beginning of “Summer Falls” with the sound of wind and birds in the placid moments of early morning. The way the track evolves it sounds like the composer is using piano, strings, synths and electronic sounds to track the course of the sun as it arcs slowly and peacefully to midday. The swell of sounds conveys a sense of witnessing the subtle but unignorable power of the sun and in moments when the surge of sounds subsides for it’s as though we’re getting a glimpse through Foster’s eyes of the surrounding landscape lit up by sunlight and the sparkle of the light on water going over a nearby falls to a lower part of the river rather than a steep, intense falls like Angel or Niagara. No, the kind many of us see regularly who have the privilege to live near streams and rivers that flow through changing elevations. Foster captures the various moods and textures of observing this everyday experience and the tranquil and inherent beauty to dynamics and processes that have gone on before humanity existed and will likely continue after we are gone but being witness to this simple wonder can strike one as significant in itself knowing that we can appreciate things that go on whether we’re there to bear witness or not. Listen to “Summer Falls” on Spotify and follow Neil Foster at the links provided below.

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Neil Foster Evokes a Landscape Cloaked by Snow and Fog With the Enigmatic Ambient Soundscape of “Western Line”

“Western Line” might well be the signature song of Neil Foster’s new album Stormlight. Its spare soundscape suggests a snow covered landscape traversed via rail and peering out the window, marking time by the towers and the steady shuffle of wheels on tracks and the mechanisms driving motion in the distance, the rest of the world obscured by the falling snow. Soft pulses of tone accenting stages of the journey and ethereal, all but wordless female vocals courtesy Utasvi Jha giving voice to memories and passing thoughts as you wend toward a mysterious destination. Listen to “Western Line” on Bandcamp and follow the link to give a listen to the rest of Stormlight. Connect with Neil Foster at the links provided below.