Review
Genre and Mood
Francis Harris made Lostfound the first single from his debut album, and his label, Scissor and Thread, described it precisely: “a contemplative, atmospheric pop song cast in a deep house framework”. Those words give this page its genres, deep house and pop with the ambient air Discogs also hears in the album, and its feelings: reflective, atmospheric, and emotional, because the label heard a vocal that “cuts straight to the emotional core of the material”.
Song Summary
Lostfound is the fourth track of Leland, released by Scissor and Thread on 28 February 2012, and it runs seven minutes and thirty-four seconds. Harris composed the album as a requiem for his father, Leland, after whom it is named; the label called it “a highly personal work”. The Danish singer Gry Bagøien sings Lostfound and, Discogs credits, wrote its words, and Greg Paulus of No Regular Play adds improvised trumpet. The single came first, on limited vinyl in October 2011.
Musical Breakdown
No source we found times Lostfound or walks through its parts, so this guide follows the label’s description, element by element.
The Vocal
The label calls Gry’s performance outstanding and says it cuts straight to the emotional core. Listen for the voice first: this is a song before it is a dance track.
The Trumpet
The trumpet accents are subtle and improvised, and in the label’s words they “propel the narrative”. Listen for how they move the story along around the voice, rather than taking a solo.
Concepts in Focus
A remix sent Lostfound in another direction from the start. The 2011 single paired it with Matthew Herbert’s Let Yourself Go Mix, and a live remix by Black Light Smoke followed on a 2012 remix volume of Leland. Herbert also reworked Kalabrese, Khan – Desperate Man feat. Khan; compare what he does to a slow vocal track.
A soundtrack can give a song a second life far from where it began. In 2017 Lostfound, credited to Harris and Gry, appeared on the soundtrack of The Bad Batch, Ana Lily Amirpour’s dystopian thriller set in a desert, which had won a Special Jury Prize in Venice.
Artistic Context
Harris co-founded Scissor and Thread in Brooklyn in 2011 with Anthony Collins, a label known for analog and organic instrumentation and for albums rather than singles; Harris’s two albums, Leland and Minutes of Sleep, are its most successful releases. He also suggested the name of Bob Moses, the duo behind Bob Moses – Tearing Me Up. Gry, born in Denmark in 1975 and raised in Mozambique, had led a band with the former Einstürzende Neubauten member F.M. Einheit before moving to Berlin.
Impact and Reception
Wikipedia notes that Leland received strong reviews from Resident Advisor. Lostfound kept travelling: on the label’s 2014 compilation Tailored Cuts and then into a film. Give it its seven and a half minutes, and listen for the trumpet.
