ISAAC FOSL VAN WYKE

Isaac Fosl-van Wyke is a songwriter and puppeteer based in Louisville, Kentucky, whose whimsical poetry is haunted by brutalities past and present. Biting cultural critique resides in mythical, rhyme-heavy storytelling, supported by harmonic layers from outstanding Kentucky musicians (Joan Shelley, Nathan Salsburg, Lacey Guthrie, Anna Krippenstapel, and more). All held together by Isaac’s singular voice, the songs quiver with anxiety and hope while confronting crises of cultural genocide, climate change, and industrial capitalism.

Isaac moved back to Louisville in 2019, seeking a band to flesh out songs written in upstate New York and the Painted Desert of the Navajo nation. He co-founded a choir focusing on polyphonic music of the Caucasus and Balkan regions. During the pandemic, he landed in a community of local songwriters (the Pineapple Playground) who met online to share results of a new prompt each week, staying sane in a time of isolation.

EP Possibilitarian Smile (May 2021) and Full-length UNDERNEATH (October 2021) were recorded in COVID-piecemeal style throughout fall of 2020 with Jim Marlowe (End of An Ear studios). The EP contains older and folkier-sounding songs thanks to the fiddle contributions of Anna Krippenstapel, but both releases share an undertone of good grief and question how to live well in a culture that seems to be killing itself. Single “Every Body Knows” is an indictment of white silence in the face of racist police brutality, while stripped-down “Darling” is sung from the perspective of a twin lost in childbirth. Each song hurts a little, but delivers on the Possibilitarian promise. Isaac will tour around the east coast and midwest throughout winter of 2021.

“Isaac Fosl-van Wyke continues to perfect his unique brand of passionate, rootsy folk-rock on his debut full-length album, Underneath.“

Music Mecca

“Each song is a chance for Isaac to weave you stories through America’s tortured past, but leave you with a sense of hope for better a tomorrow.”

IndieBandGuru