Josephine Foster

★★★★ Godmother FIRE. CD/DL/LP

The ceaseless individualist enfolds synths into her world to striking effect.

By track three, Guardian Angel, it’s clear that Josephine Foster’s particular musical garden has welcomed new blossoms. Her crepuscular delivery and cracked, often ghostly voice is intact, as is the inherent sense that her songs channel the spirit of an ancient woodland. There’s a new directness, a more linear approach to melody, and, most unexpectedly, the overt presence of synthesizers. They weave through the songs as gauzy texture or, by turn, are in subtle, plangent attendance. For touchstones, the favoured settings are akin to Kraftwerk’s Ruckzuck and the early John Carpenter soundtracks. Factor this into the mantra-like Flask Of Wine and the vocal round core to Dali Rama, and the result comes across as an Appalachian folk-based nod to Alice Coltrane’s spiritual recordings with synths. It ends with the beautiful, openly devotional The Sum Of Us All.