Josephine Foster

Josephine Foster is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Colorado. She is known for her anachronistic voice and work that weaves older styles with the modern, escaping simple classification.

As a teenager, Foster worked as a church singer and aspired to become an opera singer. She moved to Chicago in 1998 to further her opera studies, and began home-recording her songs, resulting in the albums There Are Eyes Above, influenced by Tin Pan Alley, and an album of children's songs, Little Life. She then released collaborative albums with local folk bands The Children's Hour (SOS JFK), Born Heller (S/T), as well as All the Leaves Are Gone, a psychedelic rock album with backing band The Supposed.

A number of solo records followed, including the all acoustic Hazel Eyes, I Will Lead You, an unorthodox collection of 19th century German Lieder titled A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, and This Coming Gladness, a psychedelic folk-rock album.

Foster released most of her recordings the following decade with Fire Records, including Graphic as a Star, her settings of 27 Emily Dickinson poems.

Thereafter she began to record frequently with engineer Andrija Tokic, who co-produced with Foster her solo albums Blood Rushing, I'm A Dreamer, and Faithful Fairy Harmony; also More Amor, a psych-folk album by her new band Mendrugo formed with Victor Herrero. The latter was Foster's first foray into writing lyrics in Spanish.

Foster lent her voice to the soundtrack for the 2020 film, The World to Come, and sung (as well as co-wrote) the titular song over the end credits. She also played a Shaker singer in The Testament of Ann Lee, also singing in the soundtrack alongside Phil Minton, Shelley Hirsch, Maggie Nicols, Alan Sparhawk, and others.