Alex Henry Foster's Summertime Departures Vinyl Is Now Available!
Nov 04, 2020
I’m very happy to let you know that the wait has finally ended!
As a member of The Club, you now have access to Alex Henry Foster’s very unique "Summertime Departures” limited and collector silkscreened lathe cut special LP, which is the second of his 5 different editions associated with his album “Windows in The Sky”.
If you are new to the club or not very familiar with how it works, it is as simple as it is exciting! You have until Friday, November 6, 9:59am (Eastern Time), which means you have a 48-hour exclusive pre-sale, before it becomes available to everyone who isn't a member of the club.
As a little reminder and contextual portrait:
We started 2020 by sharing this very special "Summertime Departures" three songs EP edition as the lead “single” for what was about to become Alex’s incredible international journey following the release of his very first solo record debut on May 1st.
Every lathe cut vinyl collector release is incredibly significant in its own way, but since “Summertime Departures" houses the Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival version of the song, recorded on July 5 at the Club Soda, where Alex was not only performing his new songs for the very time to a sold-out audience, but was one of the very few headlining artists to play in front of a full house in the 40 years of the ionic 2-week-long festival, it gives this vinyl edition a little something more particular.
Therefore, as we explained for the previous exclusive pre-sale associated with the LP “Shadows of Our Evening Tides” edition, you need to remember that every limited and collector silkscreened lathe cut LP edition always sells out very quickly as we print only between 100 to 125 copies of each edition and that we are now offering what we call our “safety” copies of each edition, which only represent a fraction of the total we originally printed, in case something happened through the initial shipping process.
So, make sure to get your copy before they're gone, as there will be no reprint in the future!
Here’s what every Summertime Departures vinyl includes:
– The Windows in the Sky album version of the song Summertime Departures
– The Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival version of the song Summertime Departures (Sometimes I Dream)
– The Summertime Departures “radio edit” version
– 1 hand-printed silkscreen heavyweight lathe cut 12” LP
– Signed and numbered limited edition
– 1 hand-printed silkscreen jacket
– 1 digital download card
ALEX ABOUT SUMMERTIME DEPARTURES
"I started to daub the words to what would later become the lyrics for “Summertime Departures” as I was living in the dazzling city of Tangier, where I sort of drifted in a moment of great confusion. My father’s passing being at the center of the echoing emptiness that I was no longer able to ignore after years trying to avoid any type of introspective honesty on what felt like a senseless existence at this point in my life.
my father’s death was as if I had lost enough of myself to suddenly wonder who I truly was and what it meant to face a truth that didn’t imply faith, if only the elusive sensation of having to let go in order to move on. There’s a profound lucidity that comes with honesty and having to face the reality that comes with death. I knew somehow I would find enough nonsense to convince myself of an intelligible measure of acceptance in order to find some purpose in all those emotions, as much as in their denial or absence thereof. Again, I was wrong.
Being alone in a place as appealingly fascinating as greatly puzzling as Tangier, I spent countless days observing the sea standing between Europe and Africa from the rooftop terrace of a small guest house, looking at all the people craving to fill the few-minutes-ferry-ride gap keeping them away from the dream of a better life, all gracefully standing with their hopeful arms trying to stretch just wide enough to reach out to a shore of new possibilities that seems to slowly fade away with every longing prayer, observing kids playing football in old and narrow streets, the very same streets that saw their fathers and grandfathers envisioning a more singular life and the everlasting love only believed in by innocent youth, watching women peacefully smiling back at me while drawing water from the kasbah’s public fountain, gazing at elderly people reading poetry while others were praising the wonders of what looks so ordinary to passers-by always walking a little faster as days pass by. It was a world of unique paradoxes reflecting my state of emotional bewilderment right before my eyes.
Witnessing how those people connected with the notion of the “now” offered me a perspective I couldn’t escape from no more, something that was way beyond grief, life, death and myself. Therefore, I started writing. I never thought I would have the courage to be that honest, to be that vulnerable,to expose what I was going through and to eventually find a way to let him go, to be set free. It all sort of made sense with the image of setting stone on a sanctum shrine… That was the starting point. That was the strange but meaningful ignition for me and ultimately the song. The idea was about a “marker” testifying of the foundation a person could have been in our lives… a “common” stone transcending any sort of precious ornaments.
That image led me to wonder what’s ultimately left of us, when time passes by, when we are lost in the winds… When there’s no right or wrong in death… And therefore, now looking at it with an honest perspective of my own paradoxes and vulnerability, I understand that “Summertime Departures” is my way to say that regardless of what we may have spent our entire lives believing in or what we may have forgotten with time, there is a permanence amidst the most painful of all sorrows and our decision to let go in the acceptance that love, just like stone, will forever endure."
- Alex
A QUICK REMINDER OF HOW
THE NEXT TWO DAYS WILL WORK
What is very important to understand is that, since we only have a few copies left of each of those lathe cut vinyls crafted by Alex himself, we took an important decision to make it fair and fun for everyone.
So again, when we talked about it, it was clear that Alex didn’t want to simply do a “first come, first served” kind of thing, especially not in The Club! He didn’t want to create a competition about it, so we had to figure another way, and I think we did! In fact, that’s what I really like about Alex; there’s always some magic, fun, and depth added to what could easily be boring and insignificant! He is so engaged in every little detail, mixing art, communion with people and meaning into the non-personal nature of commerce! So, here’s how this will work!
- Please make sure your account has been created within our new online store: HERE
- Each vinyl will be exclusively available in The Club for 2 days for you all to get an even chance to buy it.
- There is a limit of 1 vinyl per person.
- If we sell more than the vinyls we have in our possession during those 2 days, Alex will go live on his Facebook page in order to publicly draw the lucky winners this Sunday, November 8 at 9am Eastern Time (Details Below).
- If you purchased a vinyl during those 2 days and that your name doesn’t come out of the hat during the live draw, we will send you your money back right away.
- In an improbable case that we do not sell all the vinyls during those 2 days, everyone who purchased one will get it automatically.
- Once the vinyl is publicly available to everyone, it will be a "first come, first served" system until it is sold out!
- Next Release dates: November 18 / November 30 / December 16
- I will personally reach the winners via email following the Facebook Live draw!
- Since those are the “safety” copies we kept in case something goes wrong during the shipping process, we won’t be able to replace your copy if anything happens. In that case, we will refund you. Let’s all hope everything will be alright.
If you have any questions regarding any of the above points, please feel free to simply answer this message and I’ll get back to you personally!
THE OFFICIAL SECOND DRAW
Thank you again my dear friends for making that kind of moment something so exciting! It’s always a real privilege for us to share such a significant time with you all. We had such a great time participating at the very first official draw last October 19, that I really can’t wait to be there with you again!
And to be honest, just to see Alex being so joyfully involved in the whole process is a real blessing for us, as we know he has never been a real fan of those live moments… to say the least...!
So make sure to get your “Summertime Departures” limited and collector silkscreened lathe cut special LP before joining us all on Sunday, November 8 at 9am Eastern Time! (Make sure to check your time zone HERE) to see Alex's live draw held on his official Facebook page!
Let’s enjoy this time all together around music and vinyls! Stay safe, and above all… Hopeful!
Your Friend and Host,
Jeff
