Artwork by Livie Turley
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Tom Foden
Sonic journal entries of a man working to release the innocence and joy of his young self.
This album is an exercise in releasing the protections that have long since served their purpose. The confines of depression. The familiarity of loneliness. The safety of smallness.
Written, produced, mixed and mastered by Tom Foden at Five Thousand Sound Studio, Te Awa Kairangi, Aotearoa · 11 July 2026
Tracks
A turning point and a new beginning. After leaving my old career to create a new one in the studio, I made myself a promise: make music, practice & learn, every day. This track was a catalyst. Listen
I record the sonic landscape of meaningful places. Listening back to a recording of kids playing basketball outside my daughter's school, this song came and then memories unlocked: shooting hoops alone after school, seeking escape, comfort and belonging. Sophie Sabri's voice whispers back to that child. Listen
feat. Sophie Sabri
From a low place, finding just enough hope left to wish for something more - to be someone who wants to be me. Victoria Ferguson's piano completes the story - uplift and depth, composure and disorder, hope and retreat. Listen
feat. Victoria Ferguson
The interludes are scenes, transitions between stories. One moves us into deeper, dreamier territory. Listen
Inner space expanding, evolving, colliding - kaleidoscopic. Listen
What my world feels like when I'm fully inside the music. A sense of place, but also of movement, relationship and energy. Close your eyes and look around. Listen
An improvised piece on bass guitar and the Moog synth I bought straight after experiencing Thom Yorke play live. This piece is deliberately unedited, unhurried & imperfect. Listen
The album's hardest edge. Distorted 808s, heavy bass, swelling synths, off-kilter keys. Unsettled, anxious, fearful - this is my attempt to soundtrack a persistent sense of 'something's wrong'. Listen
A breath. A break in the cloud. Hands clapped in unison, something like joy, the understanding that good times always find their way back. Listen
An escape into nature. Cicadas calling out in cacophony for their transient lives. A sweeping chorused bass feeding into itself. A drone that holds the through-line. Listen
A shopping centre escalator wailing in tune. A kitten purring to comfort itself through illness. A disconnected rhythm section and a moving melody. Lonely homeliness and the (dis)comfort of consumption - held together in collage. Listen
The heart of this project. A song about depression - not as an adversary, but as a life partner. Something that held the young me when nothing else could, that made chaos coherent and kept me stable when family life was not. I found that by acknowledging what it gave me, I could finally release what I no longer needed to carry. Listen
This song is why the album exists.
feat. Victoria Ferguson
A moment of completion, finishing big. Children's voices, overlapping breakbeats, layered percussion, interlocking guitars. This is what the other side sounds like. Listen
Get the album
No DSP release. A considered, values-led decision.
If it moves you, share it with someone it might move too.
S T E M S
A gift, and an invitation.
The stems from {...r e l e a s e...} are available to musicians, producers and sound artists who want to work with this material - remix it, reimagine it, respond to it.
In return, I'd just like to know a little about you - who you are and where you're making music.
What you make with them matters to me. I'd love to hear it and what it means to you.
Leave your details below and I'll be in touch personally.
C O N N E C T
I'd love to hear from you - what this music means to you, what you're making, where you want your music to take you.
Tom Foden
Producer · Mixer · Musician
Five Thousand Sound Studio, Te Awa Kairangi