Friday 8 September 2017, 7.30pm
“She effortlessly dissolves barriers between herself and her fellow musicians, between music and listener, between language and expression.” – The WIRE
Josephine Foster makes a welcome return to OTO with her masterful self-honed songbook - some singalongs, some deep atmospheric tales that leave the listener yearning to know more. Josephine Foster is not only a captivating songwriter and performer, but also is daring, versatile and irreverent in her approach to subject and form.
On the eve of his trio's appearance at Bermondsey Folk Festival, Alasdair Roberts will be joining Josephine for a number of duets as part of her set in the first night of her residency.
"It's a pretty much perfect set, a quiet masterclass in songwriting with melodies that find the sweet spot in unexpected places and a self-possessed beauty that only grows with every listen." – Time Out, review of I'm A Dreamer
Coloradoan Josephine Foster’s route is a free, chromatic music, a tuneful montana of mind–an expansive harmonic space dominated by mountains on the horizon. As highwater as the music is, as broad the stylistic palette of it, her music really exists in service of the lyrics.
She has performed for an audience of burros, concerts of Federico Garcia Lorca poems set to music. A music of wandering and a music of roots. An impermanent tradition passed down for generations. Let your loved ones know.
Alasdair Roberts is a Glasgow-based musician – primarily a singer and guitarist – born in Germany and raised in central Scotland. Acclaimed by Folk Radio UK as 'one of our most talented, important and relevant songwriters and song-adapters', he has released several critically acclaimed albums of his music via Drag City Records since the late nineties.
Alasdair is known for his own idiosyncratic and evocative compositions and songs, as well as for his fresh interpretations of traditional songs and narrative ballads from Scotland and beyond. He enjoys a wide range of collaborations with fellow musicians, as well as with artists from other disciplines. He plays in the groups Furrow Collective and Current 93 and has toured extensively both in the UK and worldwide, both solo and with various musical companions.
Alasdair’s most recent album, Grief in the Kitchen and Mirth in the Hall, is a collection of traditional songs recorded entirely solo. April 2025 will see the release of Remembered in Exile: Songs and Ballads from Nova Scotia, a new album recorded in collaboration with Lewis-born Gaelic singer Màiri Morrison and Canadian producer/arranger Pete Johnston.
