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Kimiyo

by Alex Henry Foster

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $8 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Printed and crafted at The Fabrik, Alex Henry Foster’s creative atelier.
    Pressed at Drummond Vinyl, Alex Henry Foster's vinyl pressing plant.

    Includes:
    - 1 Pink marble effect double LP gatefold vinyl
    - 4 Pages lyric sheets
    - 1 Insert
    - 1 Digital download card

    Tracklisting:

    SIDE A
    1. Of Dreams and Dust (04:18)
    2. A Silent Stream (08:18)

    SIDE B
    3. The Edge of Time (10:05)
    4. A Vessel Astray (07:44)

    SIDE C
    5. All of Our Past Future Lives (04:41)
    6. Autumnal Processions (07:34)
    7. Nocturnal Candescence (09:47)

    SIDE D
    8. Too Bright to Crumble (08:05)
    9. Under a Luxuriant Sky (08:09)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Kimiyo via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ... more
    ships out within 14 days

      $40 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes:
    - 1 CD
    - 4 pages booklet
    - 1 Download Card

    Tracklisting:
    1. Of Dreams and Dust (04:18)
    2. A Silent Stream (08:18)
    3. The Edge of Time (10:05)
    4. A Vessel Astray (07:44)
    5. All of Our Past Future Lives (04:41)
    6. Autumnal Processions (07:34)
    7. Nocturnal Candescence (09:47)
    8. Too Bright to Crumble (08:05)
    9. Under a Luxuriant Sky (08:09)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Kimiyo via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 14 days

      $13 USD or more 

     

1.
- Chapter I - 夢と塵 朝は歌った 潮の満ち引きの上を飛ぶ鳥のように 風の柔らかな囁きが 果てしない傷を ゆっくりと覆う ネオンの光 回る衛星に意図され 夜の消えゆく香りを通して 無垢の色のように消えていき 朝を迎えるたびに 少しずつ漂っていく リズムは安定している 若かりし頃のリボンが映す 一瞬の美しさのように あてもなく走りながら 四方八方に飛んでいる ろうそくに灯された火のように 朽ち果てる自らの終焉にも気づかず かつて交わした約束を燃やして輝く 願うことがなくなるまで… そして鳥は歌うのを止める 衰退と成長 その流れが続く中 夢と塵でできた渦巻く輝きが 足を祝福するために 誰かの訪れを待っている 待っている 待っている ---- - Chapter I - Of Dreams and Dust The morning sang like a bird flying over ebbs and flows The soft murmurs of the winds slowly covering the endless wounds All designed by neon lights and running moons Fading like innocence’s colors through the ever-fading perfumes of the night Drifting a little more with each passing dawn The rhythm is steady, like the fleeting beauty of our youthful ribbons Flying in every direction as we run aimlessly Like a candle’s blowing flame, unaware of its own decaying demise It shines, burning the promises it once bore Until there’s nothing left to wish for And the birds stop singing As the tide keeps on going, in decline and regrowth Waiting for someone else to feel its whirling glow blessing their feet Made of dreams and dust Waiting Waiting
2.
- Chapter II - 流れる沈黙 記憶は時間 沈黙と妄想 雑音の欠片 亡霊と孤独 答えを探して 誰かを求める 自分の言葉を信じるより前に 人に聞かせる話に慰めがあるように 人混みに溢れた通りは 別の物語 別の方向へ 人を急がせる ずっと昔に失った笑顔 戻ることのない人の優しさ 答えを探して 誰かを求める 見守って欲しいと願った神々として 鏡が恐れを映しながら 同じ輝きが点滅する 眩しいほどに 広大な光で その不思議で 霞んだ信仰を隠せたであろう奇跡で 空を覆っている 微かな光を諦めるたびに 明るい魂を失うにつれて 自由を願いながら 鋼とガラス プライドで 巨人を作る 答えを探して 誰かを求める ---- - Chapter II - A Silent Stream Memories are time Silence and delusions Fragments of noise Ghost and its solitude Looking for answers… for someone As if comfort comes in stories we’ve learned to tell others before we can even believe a word of our own The crowded streets tell otherwise, a different tale, a different direction for us to rush in A long-gone smile Someone else’s kindness set never to return Looking for answers… for someone As the gods we begged them to look over us Their mirrors reflecting fears with the same sparkling flashes Dazzlingly Now cover the skies with magnitude, with their wonders, with the miracles we could have dressed our pale and fragile faith And as we lose our brightest soul, with every gleam we give up We wish to be free, while we keep on building giants made up of steel, glass, and pride Looking for answers… for someone
3.
- Chapter III - 時の果て 時の果てに響く 柔らかな呟き 地平線はぼやけている 別の着陸から 通過地点から
治らない傷のように集められる ひび割れた窓 気にも留めない冬が 逃げる歩みを内側から覆っている 折り畳まれた誓いから生まれた未婚の風景 壊れた紙の人形は囁きを生むことができない 景色の変化を求めて叫ぶ 叫ぶ 叫ぶ 叫ぶ 求めて叫ぶ 叫ぶ 叫ぶ 私は生きている?息をしてる? それとも誰かの過去の響き? 過去の響き? 過去の響き? 私は悲しい白黒のキャンバスに写った 消えゆくたった一つの雲 生まれた時から後悔にまみれ かつての眩しさに拒絶され 今や忘れっぽさによって高貴になった 心から望んだものが輝きであるとき 人生は顔と顔が混ざり合う ただのサーカスだろうか 静止した約束に続く動き 手の中で握っている見えない奇跡の流れ まるでどこかへ どこへでも 逃げ道へも 連れて行ってくれるチケットを持っているかのように けれど それは 嘆きを持ってくるだけ 嘆きを持ってくるだけ あまりにも良く知りすぎる場所 あまりにも良く知りすぎる場所 永遠に停止した転落 転落 どこへも導かない どこへも導かない どこへも導かない 静止した転落 無関心 誰も気にしない 誰も気にしない 誰にも見えない 無関心 無関心 無関心 無関心 私は生きてる?息をしてる? それとも誰かの過去の響き? 誰も気にしない 誰も気にしない 時の果てに響く 柔らかな囁き 私は生きてる?息をしてる? 生きてる? ------ - Chapter III - The Edge Of Time A soft murmur over the edge of time The horizon’s blurry from another landing, another transit Fractured windows assembled like open wounds left by a careless winter covering our eluding steps from further within Nulliparous landscape made of folded vows, paper figures unable to breed whispers beyond their own broken nature Screaming for a change of scenery Scream Scream Scream Scream Screaming for… Scream Scream Am I alive, am I breathing, Or am I an echo of somebody else’s past Echos of the past Echos of the past I am a sole vanishing cloud projected on a canvas made of my sorrowful black and white Regretful by default, rejected by my once glaring dazzlements, now made noble through my forgetfulness, when it is radiance that I truly ever longed for Is life only a circus of faces merging into one another… a movement followed by stop-motion promises… a current of unseen miracles we hold in our hands Like we’re holding a ticket pretending to lead somewhere, anywhere, a runaway path But that only brings its grieving back, that only brings its grieving back To the very same place we know too well To the very same place we know too well A downfall standing forever still A downfall Leading nowhere Leading nowhere Leading nowhere A downfall standing forever still Indifference No one cares No one cares No one sees Indifference Indifference Indifference Indifference Am I alive, am I breathing, am I an echo of somebody else’s past No one cares No one cares A soft murmur over the edge of time… Am I alive, am I breathing Am I alive
4.
- Chapter IV - 迷い舟 方向を見失った船 海の浸食 母の目に映る 悲しみに蝕まれている 生まれることのない子ども かつて光だった嘆きの象徴 地平線が消えるにつれて 不安を招く抱擁となった 衰弱した鎖とともに 彷徨ったあげく 横たわる 涙へと 水と洗礼の物語 喜びの幻影 潮で血を洗う未来へと 問いかけばかり 祈るよりも 信じる心が遠くへと運ぶなら 愛とその疑いは 名残惜しい布 疲れた足 枯れ果てた叫びを越えて 瀕死の夕暮れを輝かせる 問いかけばかり 問いかけばかり モザイクの天(そら) 描かれた海 天国と不信仰 存在とその無常 真実さえも 孤独に眠るのだ 絶望を信じられないほどに 深く溺れてしまう恐怖のために 深く考え込むために 人は多くの問いかけをする ひざまづいて祈るより ひざまづいて祈るより 祈るより 祈るより 祈るより ----- - Chapter IV - A Vessel Astray A vessel astray, eroded by the sea and devoured by the sadness of a mother’s mourning eyes From a child yet to be born, a symbol of grief that once was a light, that has grown on to become an unsettling embrace, as the horizon dissipates with languishing strands, wandering before lying down, in tears In a vision of rapture, of blood washed out with salt, mixed up with water and its baptizing lore We ask more questions than we kneel down to pray If faith brought us that far, love and its doubts are lingering sheets sparkling their dying dusk over our tired feet, our own worn-out cries We ask more questions We ask more questions In a firmament of mosaic, a rendering ocean, heaven and its disbeliefs, existence and its impermanence Even truth sleeps alone through its most daring fears of drowning way too deep to trust its own despairs To dwell just a little too close to its own beclouded mists… As we ask more questions than we kneel down to pray… Than we kneel down to pray… To pray To pray To pray
5.
Chapter V 過去未来全ての命 心に何があったのか 思考は教えてくれない 否定するようになった美しさ その下にしか存在しない自分がいるのだろうか 催眠術のような静寂 口笛を吹く風 閉じ込められた騒音から 鐘の音が混ざる 感情の広さを知らない よそ者の私たちへと戻る 新しい幸せの新しい形を真似た音へと 以前のようではないとフリをするのに時間はかからない 時計がとりとめなくチクタクとチクタクと進み続けるとき 過去と未来の人生が飛び散る絵具のように動く 動く 動く 目隠しをして 皆 何かを恐れている 死がその恐れではないとき 命はその眺めを明るくする 命はその眺めを明るくする 命は眺めを明るくする 全ての裏切りと 自己破壊的な別れのために ----- - Chapter V - All of Our Past Future Lives What happened to the heart that our mind won’t tell Is there a version of ourselves that only exists underneath the surface of all the wonders we grew up to deny Hypnotic-like static and whistling winds, from confining rustles, our chiming interweaves It all goes back to the strangers we are to the sweeping feelings, to the mimicking sounds of new forms of happiness awaiting It doesn’t take much to pretend that nothing really seems like it was before, when clocks keep their rambling tick tock Their rambling tick tock Like our past future lives all moving in splashes of paints Moving Moving Blindfolded, we’re all scared of something, and when death is not one of them existence brightens its views Existence brightens its views Existence brightens its views For every one of our treasons and their self-subversive goodbyes For every one of our treasons and their self-subversive goodbyes
6.
- Chapter VI - 秋の行列 誓い ランタン 輝き 光 感謝に満ちた人生 生まれた願いのように 生まれた願い 豊かさ 愛の約束 愛の約束 笑い 光 豊富 感謝に満ちた人生 生まれた願いのように 愛の約束 光 春 愛の約束 誓いに満ちたランタンの輝きを育てる光のシルエット 独特に昇っていく感覚 生贄の叫びを記憶に留める 行列がカラフルな驚きで恵まれるとき 感謝に満ちた人生を油が焼き尽くそうとしてる 都合の良い呪文の深夜の婚礼 豊かさから作られたリボンに笑いを与える 心の聖堂なく 与えられた愛の約束を落書きしている かつて黄金に輝く神聖な土地を守ってきた場所 今や光が飾りを鋭くし 栄えることのない胸に悟りを与える 春を前にして切られた花から生まれた願いのように --- - Chapter VI - Autumnal Processions Pledge Lanterns Glimmers Lights Life of gratefulness Like a wish A wish Richness Promises of love Promises of love Laughter Light Abundance Life of gratefulness Like a wish Promises of love Light Spring Promises of love Beaming silhouettes feeding the glimmers of lanterns filled with covenantal pledge Embalming the sacrificial hues of a day dressed with unique ascending sensations While the moving procession is blessed with colorful astonishments The oil is set to be burning throughout an entire life of gratefulness To a midnight marriage of convenience spells Offering laughter in ribbons made of ordinary riches Gratifying the most common promises of love once given without a heartfelt shrine That used to hold the likes of a golden holy land But glows now in sharpened embellishments, enlightening a bosom never to flourish Like a wish made out of flowers cut before their own blissful springtime
7.
- Chapter VII - 夜の白熱光 人は贈り物を無償で与えられた それは永遠に最愛の終焉であり続ける 陶磁器のランプが薄暗い空気を灯す 憂鬱な夜の光とその獲物によって メロディーが弱まり 歌うのを躊躇う 見当たらない衝動が つまづく情熱へと逆戻り 引力の自然な流れに従って自由に踊るとき 平凡な秋が古い詩へと葬儀の悲願を陰らせる 夏至から光を借りて 切望する驚きが容赦無く無慈悲になれることを忘れる 無頓着 その土に夢に満ちた流産を埋めるとき 辛い体験はすぐに忘れられると知っている 手入れされていない地面 行進する別の記憶によって 私たちは迷う木の葉 高く舞い上がり 遠くへ行く人生の重なりと共に 嘆きや不幸 嘆きや不幸によって引きずり下ろされ お香を焚いて 教会の光を灯す 自信のなさが赦されるように 魂を諦め 魂を諦め 疑いを消耗すべく 苦行に身を捧げる 自らの見通しを軽蔑するために 展望を打ち消す 打ち消す そして悲しみにしがみつき サインを 言葉を待っている そして悲しみにしがみつき サインを しるしを待ってる そして悲しみにしがみつき しるしを 言葉を待ってる そして悲しみにしがみつき サインを 言葉を待ってる そして悲しみにしがみつき しるしを 言葉を待っている 炎の舌を持って急ぐ風が覆いかぶさり 精霊が言葉を伝えるのを 聖なる香りを呪った唇の純粋さを許すまで 人は贈り物を無償で与えられた それは永遠に 最愛の終焉であり続ける 最愛の終焉であり続ける しるしを待ってる しるしを待ってる しるしを待ってる しるしを待ってる しるしを待ってる --- - Chapter VII - Nocturnal Candescence 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 We give up on our soul to absolve diffidence We give up on our soul We devote our penance, in attrition to doubts To scorn our outlook, we flog out our designs And we hold on to sorrows, awaiting a sign, a word And we hold on to sorrows, awaiting a sign, a mark And we hold on to sorrows, awaiting a mark, a word And we hold on to sorrows, awaiting a sign, a word And we hold on to sorrows, awaiting a mark, a word Rushing wind with tongues of fire, to fall down on our heads, for spirits to give us utterance Until we forgive the puerility of our lips for having ever cursed the oblation perfumes We've been kindly granted a present that has been freely bestowed And forever will stand as a beloved demise And forever will stand as a beloved demise Waiting for a sign Waiting for a sign Waiting for a sign Waiting for a sign Waiting for a sign
8.
- Chapter VIII - 崩れることのない明るい平和 混乱と悲劇から学ぶこと 曖昧だ 生きとし生けるもの全てを枯らし 無知な見せかけの流れを作る 失った信仰 悲しみと無関心 嘆きのない追悼 自由において雄大 人間性を失う これが人の求める真実なの? 求めたのは野蛮な自由ではない 何年も来たる息の音を 音の風景として捉えてきた けれど 気にする様子もなく 空っぽな呟きを動かすだけ 十字架の血よりも 沈黙が重くなるまで 封印された石の前に 祝福はない 休むことのない目が自らを放棄し 落ち着かない海への墓となる 混乱し 間違ったまま 神聖な写真が静けさを新たな讃美歌へと吹き飛ばす 古い安息日 慎ましい解放 その場を去る 道は狭くなっていく 全ての歩みが信仰の証 深い後悔の疑いを喜びの豊富な収穫へと導く 鎖を外し 束縛する絶望を脱ぎ捨てる 反抗の行動 山道を登り 川へと到達する 支配やむごたらしい基盤を取り除き 崩れることのない明るい平和から生まれた混乱と 慰めの美しさを受け入れる 混乱と慰めの美しさを受け入れる 受け入れる 受け入れる --- - Chapter VIII - Too Bright To Crumble What we learn from maelstroms and tragedies is not always as clear Dries out everything that ever lived inside Shapes the course of our naive make-believes Our lack of faith Laments and indifference, eulogies without affection to mourn Majestic in its lack of restraint, but hopeless in its depriving humanity Is this the truthfulness we seek It’s not the feral freedom I’ve been craving For years soundscaping the breathing tones of things to come But never caring to be, stirring almost hollow mutterings until the silence grew thicker than blood on a cross There is no celebration before a sealed-up stone where restless eyes resign themselves to become the tomb of our unsettling oceans, left errant and unhinged When sacred pictures are blowing their flecked quietness for a new set of hymns A stale stoic sabbath, leaving place to humble let go The passage gets narrow, and every step's a leap as it leads the dubious measures of our flustered remorse, to bountiful harvests of elating delights We slough off our chains, and their shackling despairs In a soaring act of defiance, we walk up the trail, to reach out the river dispossessed of our yokes, our dreary foundations, to embrace the beauties of our consumed mess and its consolation, emerging from a peace way too bright to crumble… To embrace the beauties of our consumed mess and its consolation To embrace To embrace
9.
- Chapter IX - 華やかな空の下で眠るとき 色が溶け合う印象派の星座 脆弱な雰囲気へと移っていき 輪郭は震えを描く 華やかな空の下に寝そべるとき こんなにも生きてると感じたことはない 華やかな空の下で眠る 取り戻した炎と共に歩き出す 失うことへの恐れはもうなく 取り残されることへの恐れもない 視界はひらけ 見ることができる 見ることができる 自由に叫ぶことを学びながら 新しい命の産声が蘇る 絡み合ったその音を解き放つ 解き放つ 華やかな空の下で眠る 取り戻した炎と共に歩き出す お互いに分かっている 愛が運ぶものを 冬に咲き誇る春を 影を明るみに出すにつれて 暗闇を越えていく 闇を迎え 火を灯し ここにいることに感謝する 華やかな空の下で眠るとき 華やかな空の下で眠る 取り戻した炎と共に歩き出す ----- - Chapter IX - Under A Luxuriant Sky The constellation’s layering in an impressionist display of colors melting into one another, Shifting in all sorts of vulnerable atmospheres, protean outlines painting an ambiance of sober textural shivers As we lie down under a luxuriant sky, I never felt so alive I lie down under a luxuriant sky I begin to walk with my restored blaze There’s no more fear to lose, nor to be left alone, my wide-ranging view, now allowing me to see Allowing me to see As we freely learn to scream, severing revival of a newborn howling sound, cutting loose its biding entwine Cutting loose I lie down under a luxuriant sky I begin to walk with my restored blaze We both know, what love brings, a florescence spring to every winter Transcending its darkness as we’re uncovering shadows In welcoming the gloom we’re now setting alight Grateful to be here, as I lie down under a luxuriant sky I lie down under a luxuriant sky I begin to walk with my restored blaze

about

Following an extensive European tour, Foster had to undergo a cardiac double-graft surgery, a procedure initially planned to be a 4-hour intervention that turned into a 10-hour life-threatening tour de force for the surgeon. While a success, the prolonged period of intubation after the surgery, along with the several blood transfusions needed, would have a devastating effect on Foster, as added to his fragile physical state, he would have to endure months unable to talk, not knowing if he would have the ability to sing in the future, the significant blood loss contributing to severe episode of memory fogs, incoordination, dizziness and substantial headaches, having for direct result the impossibility for him to read, write, play guitar, or look at a screen. For a usually ongoing individual and upbeat type, he was now powerless.

Slowly starting to regain energy, at least just enough to envision the possibility of being able to dedicate the few functioning hours of his days, Foster contacted his friend and longtime creative accomplice Ben Lemelin (co-writer and multi-instrumentalist for his live band The Long Shadows) to assist him with what initially seemed a sort of positive recovery venture before he realized the ambitious amplitude of what Foster wanted to dwell on and accomplish considering his fragile physical and cognitive state.

The whole project was initially perceived as an instrumental one by Lemelin, Foster only being able to whisper when the idea was brought up, but the latter rather had the idea of inviting Momoka with whom he had worked on several occasions – dating back to his tenure with Your Favorite Enemies – to be the voice of the first incarnation of his project. Little did she know she would become the focal point of what would become the album titled Kimiyo, which became a catalyst for what would follow afterward.

Foreseen as a story within a story, Kimiyo bloomed into a multi-layered entity, the album is inspired by the testimonies of the people Foster met in Japan back in 2010. Kimiyo’s main narrative focuses on the journey of a young person who wrote to Foster years after their encounter to share pieces of her journey about how she found a new sense of self after thinking of taking her life upon becoming unwillingly pregnant, but unable to fathom the idea of ending her life or her pregnancy, she became hateful towards the burgeoning existence slowly taking over her body, but found a fulfilling form of hope for her present and future self emerging from feeling the baby starting to move inside of her body.

She then envisioned a life of her own, a purpose she had never imagined being able to find anywhere – especially not within herself – but lost the child following a miscarriage, leaving her empty again, but somehow transformed. She had learned that happiness is a measure of the heart and soul, accepting that purpose is something that grows from within, but, as Foster exposed it, while the tree might too often hide the beautiful density of a forest, there are lights that are simply way too bright to be hidden.

credits

released April 26, 2024

Music by: Alex Henry Foster and Ben Lemelin
Vocals by: Momoka Tobari
Lyrics by: Alex Henry Foster / Translated to Japanese by Momoka Tobari

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Alex Henry Foster Montreal, Québec

Alex Henry Foster (AHF) is a Canadian musician, singer, producer, and composer.

In November 2018, Foster released a first solo album "Windows in the Sky”.

In April 2021, he released his live album “Standing Under Bright Lights”.

In April 2024, he released his project "Kimiyo" in collaboration with the Japanese-Canadian artist Momoka and Ben Lemelin, his creative accomplice.
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