Colin Stetson

Colin Stetson (born March 3, 1975) is a Canadian-American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer based in Montreal. He is best known as a regular collaborator of the indie rock acts Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Bell Orchestre, and Ex Eye. In addition to saxophone, he plays clarinet, bass clarinet, French horn, flute, and cornet.

Colin Stetson
Stetson at Aarhus Festival, Denmark, 2017
Background information
Born	(1975-03-03) March 3, 1975 (age 47) Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.
Genres	Jazz experimental avant-garde indie rock
Instrument(s)	Bass Saxophone
Labels	Kartel Music Group (UK)
Website	www.colinstetson.com

Stetson has released various solo releases, including his debut and subsequent albums New History Warfare Vol. 1, 2, & 3, a collaborative studio album with violinist Sarah Neufeld entitled Never Were the Way She Was (2015), SORROW: A Reimagining of Henryk Górecki's 3rd Symphony (2016), and All This I Do for Glory (2017). Since 2013, Stetson has contributed the scores to several films and television series.

Background

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and currently based in Montreal, Quebec Stetson started taking lessons at age 15. He attended the University of Michigan School of Music with a full scholarship, where he joined Transmission Trio. He also played with the groups Boostamonte and the People's Bizarre.^[1][2]

Stetson has performed and recorded with dozens of artists, including Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Feist, Bon Iver, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Sinéad O'Connor, The National, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, BadBadNotGood, Fink, Animal Collective, LCD Soundsystem, Hamid Drake, David Byrne, Bill Laswell, Evan Parker, Jolie Holland, The Chemical Brothers, Shahzad Ismaily, My Brightest Diamond, Angélique Kidjo, Kevin Devine, David Gilmour, Anthony Braxton, and Beanie Burnett.

His extended saxophone techniques cover advanced circular breathing, multiphonics, altissimo, microtones, (reed) vocalizations, percussive valve-work, clicking keys, and growling.^[3] The overall effect led The New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane to describe Stetson's score to the film Hereditary as having been seemingly "scored for violins, percussion, a humpback whale, and bats."^[4]

Solo career

 

Colin Stetson at Sled Island Music and Arts Festival, Calgary, 2013.

His first solo album, New History Warfare, Vol. 1, was released in 2008. His second and third albums, New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges and New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, were released by Constellation Records in early 2011. On June 16, the album was named as a longlisted nominee (one of 40) for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.^[5] On July 6, the album was named as a shortlisted (one of 10) nominee for the 2011 award. Stetson was chosen by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he curated in December 2011 in Minehead, England.^[6] The final album of the trilogy, New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light, was released by Constellation Records in April 2013, and was a longlist nominee for the 2013 Polaris Music Prize.^[7]

April 2015 saw the release of Never Were the Way She Was, the first recording of Stetson's duo project with his wife and long-time collaborator Sarah Neufeld.^[8]

Stetson's album All This I Do for Glory was released on April 28, 2017.^[9]

While his recordings have been featured in numerous films and TV episodes, he has also produced original scores for a wide variety of films, where he has utilized a rich amalgam of his signature sonic characteristics, enhanced by various arrangement and instrumentation, orchestral and otherwise.

Discography

 

Colin Stetson with Ex Eye @ Strange Matter, 2017

Solo albums/As leader

• Tiny Beast (2003) with Transmission Trio
• Slow Descent (2003)
• New History Warfare Vol. 1 (2007)
• The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man 7" (2010)
• New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (2011)
• Those Who Didn't Run EP (2011)
• New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light (2013)
• SORROW: A Reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony (2016)
• All This I Do for Glory (2017)

Soundtrack albums

• Blue Caprice (2013)
• La Peur (2015)
• Outlaws and Angels (2016)
• Hereditary (2018)
• The First (2018)
• Color Out of Space (2020)
• Barkskins (2020)
• Deliver Us (2020)
• The War Show (2020)
• Mayday (2021)
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
• Among the Stars (2022)
• The Menu (2022)

Collaborations with other artists

• Gringo Blaster (2002) with Michael Kowalski
• Stones (2012) with Mats Gustafsson
• Never Were the Way She Was (2015) with Sarah Neufeld
• Ex Eye (2017) with Ex Eye (Greg Fox, Shahzad Ismaily, Toby Summerfield)
• Radiate (2015) with Chemical Brothers
• The Long Road North (2022) with Cult of Luna

As sideman

With Tom Waits Blood Money (2002) Alice (2002) Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006) With Arcade Fire Neon Bible (2007) The Suburbs (2010) Reflektor (2013) With TV on the Radio Dear Science (2008) With Jolie Holland The Living and the Dead (2008) With Feist Metals (2011) With Esmerine La Lechuza (2011)^[10]

With Timber Timbre Creep on Creepin' On (2011) Hot Dreams (2014) With Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver (2011) 22, A Million (2016) With David Gilmour Rattle That Lock (2015) With BadBadNotGood IV (2016) With Animal Collective Painting With (2016) With Sarah Neufeld The Ridge (2016) With Marcus Hamblett Detritus (2019)

Filmography

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Colin Stetson.

Films

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2007	Greyhounds (Short)	Kelilyn Mohr McKeever
2012	Rust and Bone	Jacques Audiard	Composer, Musician: "All the Days I've Missed You (Ilaij I)"
2013	12 Years a Slave	Steve McQueen	Composer, Musician: "Awake on Foreign Shores"
	Blue Caprice	Alexandre Moors
2014	The Rover	David Michôd	Composer, Musician: "Time is Advancing with Fitful Irregularity", "As a Bird or Branch", "Groundswell", "Awake on Foreign Shores"
2015	La Peur	Damien Odul
	Vi ska bli rappare	David Danial	Composer, Musician: "Stand, Walk"
	Denis the Pirate	Sam Messer	Composed with Sarah Neufeld
	It's About Time (Short)	Ivo Briedis
	Closet Monster	Stephen Dunn	Composer, Musician: "The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)"
2016	Lavender	Ed Gass-Donnelly	Composed with Sarah Neufeld
	Outlaws and Angels	J. T. Mollner
	The War Show	Andreas Møl Dalsgaard & Obaidah Zytoon
2017	Destierros	Hubert Caron-Guay	Partial score
2018	Age Out	A.J. Edwards
	Hereditary	Ari Aster
	We	Rene Eller
2019	Color Out of Space	Richard Stanley
2021	Mayday	Karen Cinorre
2022	Texas Chainsaw Massacre	David Blue Garcia
2022	The Menu	Mark Mylod

Documentaries

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2012	Shut Up and Play the Hits	Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern	cast as himself
2014	A City Is an Island	Timothy George Kelly	cast as himself
2015	An American, Portrait of Raymond Luc Levasseur	Pierre Marier
	New York Never Sleeps	Alfonso Nogueroles
	Scrum	Poppy Stockell
2016	The Devil's Horn	Larry Weinstein	cast as himself
	Uncle Howard	Aaron Brookner	Composer, Musician: "In Mirrors"

Television

Year	Title	Network	Notes
2014	The Blacklist The Alchemist (No. 101)	NBC	performer: " Warm Shadow" - uncredited
2017	Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Human Is	Channel 4	performer: "The rest of us" - uncredited
2018	The First	Hulu, Channel 4
2020	Barkskins	National Geographic
2021	Among the Stars	Disney Plus	Composer for all 6 Episodes
TBA	Uzumaki	Adult Swim's Toonami

Video games

Year	Title	Studio	Notes
2018	Red Dead Redemption 2	Rockstar Games

References

1. "Colin Stetson Makes You Forget Everything You Knew About the Saxophone". Noisey. May 5, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
2. Huey, Steve. "Transmission Biography". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 8, 2013.
3. Dennis, Zel (February 6, 2012). "Colin Stetson - The History of Warfare Volume 2 - Judges". modernbarisax.com. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
4. Lane, Anthony (June 8, 2018). ""Hereditary" Delivers a New Kind of Horror". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
5. . AUX.TV. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
6. ATP curated by Jeff Mangum, atpfestival.com; accessed April 19, 2015.
7. "Polaris Music Prize Unveils 2013 Long List" June 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Exclaim!, June 13, 2012.
8. "Colin Stetson". Subbacultcha. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
9. Mejia, Paula (April 20, 2017). "Review: Colin Stetson, 'All This I Do for Glory'". NPR. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
10. "CST080 ESMERINE: La Lechuza | Constellation Records". cstrecords.com. Retrieved April 26, 2016.

External links

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to Colin Stetson.

• Colin Stetson website
• Official Bon Iver website
• Embedded In The Skull: Colin Stetson's Favourite LPs - The Quietus (March 2017)