Ian Foster sees Newfoundland music as a tapestry of many different colours and threads. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think sometimes artists can get caught up in intellectualizing what a place is when it comes to their music. I\u2019ve definitely been that person.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the launch of his new record label, N\u00c4RA Community, in November, concurrent with the release of his latest album, Travelogue<\/em>, Foster will expand his own contribution to Newfoundland\u2019s musical fabric.<\/p>\n Tony Ploughman, manager of Fred\u2019s Records in St. John’s, has described Ian as \u201cthe ultimate \u2018independent\u2019 artist\u201d with a \u201ccup full with curiosity.\u201d <\/p>\n That independent curiosity has been evident throughout his career, from his beginnings as a singer-songwriter in the 1990s, to his later contributions to film scores. In recent years, his creative outputs have evolved into atmospheric instrumental pieces influenced by composers like Brian Eno, Olafur Arnalds, and Nils Frahm.<\/p>\n With the new N\u00c4RA Community recording label, Foster seeks to provide opportunities for musicians to create what he describes as \u201cmodern cinematic music.\u201d He emphasizes that the style is not easily pinned down. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is, like any good genre, so wide open in its parameters that it is willing to take in outside influences that are really disparate at times, to create something new and fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n Borrowing from the Swedish word meaning \u201cnear\u201d or \u201cclose,\u201d Foster explains that he intends N\u00c4RA Community to be more than a production house. He also wants N\u00c4RA to be \u201ca gathering place for like minds to create and collaborate under that umbrella, and for audiences to experience unique events featuring this music.\u201d<\/p>\n During the label\u2019s pilot phase, he explains, there will be some workshops in the new year, a some artists will make the visit.<\/p>\n “Then we\u2019ll release a single collaboration with myself and another artist.\u201d<\/p>\n To many, the concept of \u201cNewfoundland music\u201d evokes Irish-inflected jigs and playful folk songs. Then, bands like Figgy Duff with its windswept mysticism and the Wonderful Grand Band with its homegrown pop-rock expanded the limits of the province\u2019s musical character. <\/p>\n In recent years, the Sound Symposium has provided opportunities for musicians and their audiences to create and hear music in new ways.<\/p>\n St. John\u2019s musician Tiber Reardon, who makes ambient, often improvisational music, credits the Sound Symposium with an \u201cincreased openness\u201d to innovative music that provides a more holistic sensory experience. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the past couple of years, multi-stimulus events are gaining interest, where you\u2019re not just listening to music, but there are also these other inputs that are coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n Modern cinematic music may seem a far cry from Newfoundland folk music. Yet, Foster believes the landscape and culture of Newfoundland feed the creativity that goes into this expansive style of composition. <\/p>\n \u201cI think that our landscape, our people, our character, all of that is just excellent back story for this kind of musical expression.\u201d<\/p>\n Does Newfoundland lend itself to this type of musical creation? Both Foster and Reardon would say yes. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think of our striking landscapes and dynamic personalities,\u201d said Foster, \u201cI want to hear the musical equivalent in new and fresh ways.\u201d<\/p>\n Reardon sometimes composes literally on the landscape. <\/p>\n \u201cI bring a synthesizer and a speaker with me and go out and sit on a cliff next to the ocean. What better spot to make this kind of music?\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, Foster said, it’s about having faith in themselves. <\/p>\n “If we\u2019re actually engaging with our city, our town, our geography, whatever that looks like, that\u2019s going to be expressed in any musical style that we choose to use.\u201d<\/p>\n Concurrent with the launch of N\u00c4RA Collective, Foster is releasing his latest record, Travelogue<\/em>, inspired by and composed around sounds collected on a recent trip to Greece. <\/p>\n Foster advises listeners that it won\u2019t include performances of traditional Greek music. Rather, he explains, it’s an album that “aims to capture the feelings of travel to me: shifting movements, tones and styles, and never lingering too long in one place.\u201d<\/p>\n Much like his experience of travel, Foster said he sees his artistic expression as an evolving thing. He said the music in Travelogue<\/em> \u201ccame from the palette I had at that time. And that palette is, blessedly, constantly evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n A launch event for Travelogue<\/em> and N\u00c4RA Community will take place on Nov. 9 in Bannerman Brewery\u2019s upstairs event space. Tickets are available online. The event will be a listening party featuring live musical performances with visuals, followed by a Q&A with Foster and David Shears, manager of N\u00c4RA Community. Special guests will include Kira Sheppard, Nancy Hynes, and Amy Collyer-Holmes.<\/p>\n Download our<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0free CBC News app<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Sign up for our<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0daily headlines newsletter here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Click<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0here to visit our landing page<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cbc.ca \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ian Foster sees Newfoundland music as a tapestry of many different colours and threads. \u201cI think sometimes artists can get caught up in intellectualizing what a place is when it comes to their music. I\u2019ve definitely been that person.\u201d With the launch of his new record label, N\u00c4RA Community, in November, concurrent with the release […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2116175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2116174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Ian-Foster-weaves-new-threads-into-the-tapestry-of-NL.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2116174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2116176,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116174\/revisions\/2116176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2116175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2116174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2116174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2116174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The many facets of Newfoundland music<\/h2>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/ais\/683ff1fa-4bf0-418b-8c6e-c1bea7354194,1761310130683\/full\/max\/0\/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C414%2C448%29%3BResize%3D805\"\/)
<\/picture><\/div>![\"A](\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/ais\/7671cc27-d2b7-4b98-94bf-e7446b173721,1761310243503\/full\/max\/0\/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C3000%2C3000%29%3BResize%3D805\"\/)
<\/picture><\/div>New album: Travelogue<\/h2>\n