Alex Henry Foster's The Hunter Vinyl Is Now Available!
Nov 17, 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 "The Hunter” limited and collector silkscreened lathe cut special LP, which is the third 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 Thursday, November 19, 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 came back from a European Tour mid-march 2020, and soon after learned that the whole world was facing a pandemic and going into lockdown. "The Hunter” three-song EP was the second “single” of 2020 for what was about to become Alex’s incredible international journey following the release of his very first solo record debut on May 1st. This EP has originally been released on March 13, 2020.
Every lathe cut vinyl collector release is incredibly significant in its own way, but since "The Hunter” houses the Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival version of the song, recorded on July 5 at the Club Soda in 2019, 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 unique.
Therefore, as we explained for the previous exclusive pre-sales, 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 "The Hunter” vinyl includes:
– The Live from the Montreal International Jazz Festival version of the song The Hunter (By the Seaside Window)
– 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 THE HUNTER
“The Hunter (By the Seaside Window)” emerged from a 30-minute jam that would later be released as 15 minutes of a noisy, out-of-breath and tortured kind of dark, spiritual, emotive, and redemptive sonic journey.
The lyrics are part of a series of texts that I wrote in my new home in the middle of the Virginia Highlands after completing a 2-year exile in the city of Tangier. The symbolistic elements are numerous but are fundamentally the most honest I’ve been able to be regarding my lifelong struggles with depression and anxiety.
The hunter is the prey, as much as the prey stands as the hunter, both followed by the shadows of their own desperation and disillusions, both trying to escape reality and capture mirages. You can feel the conflict between denial and admission. You can see the traces of life following daydreaming echoes, offset reflections of similar images juxtaposing affective desperation and unwillingness to let go of their own deceptive creations. You can slowly figure out tiny pieces of the prey’s wounded agony, afflicted by a hunter renouncing to his own merciful innocence. The battle raging inside oneself, craving what we so easily leave behind, sometimes still bleeding from what has been taken away from us. Memories, like spring, cannot be revived, and disheartened will makes a redemptive seaside unreachable.
I’ve closed my eyes in peaceful glimpses of pure white sky” represents a moment of lucidity and inner peace as we emotionally lie down, accepting our defeat in a moment when defeat doesn’t mean anything - doesn’t matter anymore - allowing our spirit to see what life could have been, what loved ones could have looked like, what children would have called you… You can feel the warm affection of home, the inspiring notion of having found your purpose upon finding your people, but you are lying down, damaged and powerless, worlds away from that place you have always prayed for but never had enough faith to believe it was yours to dismiss. You are a footstep away, always have been so close…
The hunter is the light, the prey is the darkness falling in the hands of a new morning. You feel the same, but everything is different somehow. You stand up. You hear the sound of a gun that has been fired. The ghosts that kept on haunting you are waiting outside for your daily anguish to begin. It’s hard to breathe. The fight against yourself is one that is as bright as the dawn. You’re breathing in, you’re breathing out… and just like that, everything starts once again.
And the hunter keeps on coming back as the song reflects on the symbiotic notion of inner struggles feeding the growing illness of the relationship between the different entities we kept on feeding within oneself, as a sort of an out-of-step addiction to pain and resignation, but also to hopelessness and mercy, as much as to salvation and grace. The cycle only ends once we decide to let go, whatever it may mean for anyone’s beliefs.
The seaside window serves the hunter as much as the prey, from outside looking in to inside looking out. It represents our desire to find enough courage to dream again as much as it incarnates the end of a long journey. The image of the sea inspires the redeeming cleansing it brings, from washing our deadly wounds with clear water to cleaning our blood-stained hands in a stream of graceful sanctification that stands way beyond our eyes and imagination. Just as if, at the end of that implacable race between life and death, we were offered a last opportunity to be set free of all that confusion permanently rumbling inside our head…"
- 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 Saturday, November 21 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 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 THIRD 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 in the latest draw last November 8, 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 "The Hunter" limited and collector silkscreened lathe cut special LP before joining us all on Saturday, November 21 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
