Josephine Foster - Graphic As a Star

Isolation may not always be good for mental stability but its inspirational qualities cannot be doubted. Josephine Foster is the latest artist to have drunk deep from the well of loneliness and come out with something special. The songwriter spent last winter holed up in a house in a half abandoned mountain village in Spain and emerged with her sanity intact, armed with the songs that form this remarkable album.

Immersing herself in the work of great American poet Emily Dickenson, Foster channeled Dickenson’s words and her own acute homesickness to produce a masterpiece that is as chilling as it is beguiling. Accompanied only by her sparingly strummed acoustic guitar and the occasional blast of harmonica, Foster uses her keening voice to take Dickenson’s heady themes of death and immortality to some deeply haunting places.

The heartbreakingly beautiful My Life Had Stood – a Loaded Gun is the most obviously affecting moment on the album, but the remaining 25 fragmentary songs are a fitting testament to Foster’s willingness to go the extra mile for her art. [Duncan Forgan]