Foy Vance gives a taste of new album Signs of Life at Oslo Hackney

London hosted Foy Vance on two separate, sold-out nights this week in celebration of the release of new album Signs of Life. The Irish singer-songwriter graced the stage at Oslo Hackney on 9^th September and St Pancras Old Church on 10^th September (the latter also live-streaming to rapt fans further afield), as part of his latest concert series, An Evening with Foy Vance. The Upcoming’s Virginie Viche shot the intimate show in Hackney, where Vance gave his emotional audience a taster of the highlights of the album, ahead of a worldwide tour in 2022.

Released on 10^th September, the hotly anticipated Signs of Life is the artist’s fourth studio album (the second to be released on Ed Sheeran’s label Gingerbread Man Records), following 2016’s critically acclaimed The Wild Swan. The record was created during the dark days of 2020, and is billed as “an expression of dawn after darkness, hope after despair, engagement after isolation, and uplift after lockdown”. Vance explains: “Signs of Life is about re-emergence – me in my own soft revolution, the world re-emerging in what we’re about to see as we hopefully go back to some semblance of normality.”

The album was recorded in three locations: the singer’s Pilgrim studio at home on the shores of Loch Tay in Highland Perthshire, another recording set-up in a nearby Dunvarlich House, and at Plan B’s Kings X studio in London. The material is written and played more or less entirely by Vance, with assistance from young Northern Irish producer Gareth Dunlop. Label owner, and long-time friend and touring partner Sheeran commented: “As always Foy has knocked it out of the park. I love giving him the creative freedom to do what he wants as I’m at the end of the day just a huge fan of his work. It’s such a joy to be able to put out such great bodies of work from him, I hope everyone enjoys it as much as me.”

The editorial unit
Photos: Virginie Viche

For further information and future events visit Foy Vance’s website here.