Colin_Stetson
Colin Stetson
Canadian-American musician
Colin Stetson (born 1975)[1] is a Canadian-American saxophonist, multireedist, and composer based in Montreal.[2] 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 (age 48–49) Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Instrument(s) | Bass Saxophone |
| Labels | Kartel Music Group (UK) |
| Website | www |
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),[3] and All This I Do for Glory (2017). Since 2013, Stetson has contributed the scores to several films and television series.
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.[4][5]
Stetson has performed and recorded with dozens of artists, including Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Feist, Bon Iver,[6]
His extended saxophone techniques cover advanced circular breathing, multiphonics, altissimo, microtones, (reed) vocalizations, percussive valve-work, clicking keys, and growling.[7] 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."[8]
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.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]
April 2015 saw the release of Never Were the Way She Was, the first recording of Stetson's duo project with his ex wife and long-time collaborator Sarah Neufeld.[12]
Stetson's album All This I Do for Glory was released on April 28, 2017.[13]
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.
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)
- Chimæra I (2022)
- When we were that what wept for the sea (2023)
Soundtrack albums
- Blue Caprice (2013)
- La Peur (2015)
- Outlaws and Angels (2016)
- Hereditary (2018)[14]
- 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 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2022)
Collaborations with other artists
- Gringo Blaster (2002) with Michael Kowalski
- Stones (2012) with Mats Gustafsson[15]
- 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 The Chemical Brothers
- Confessions Pt II (2016) with BadBadNotGood
- The Long Road North (2022) with Cult of Luna
- Void Patrol (2022) with Void Patrol (Elliott Sharp, Billy Martin, Payton MacDonald)
- No Highs (2023) with Tim Hecker[16]
- Carry Them with Us (2023) with Brìghde Chaimbeul
As sideman
|
With Tom Waits
With Arcade Fire
With TV on the Radio
With Jolie Holland
With Feist
With Esmerine
|
With Timber Timbre
With Bon Iver
With David Gilmour
With BadBadNotGood
With Animal Collective
With Sarah Neufeld
With Marcus Hamblett
|
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[19] | Rockstar Games |
- "Colin Stetson Makes You Forget Everything You Knew About the Saxophone". www.vice.com. May 5, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
- "Colin Stetson Reimagined a 1976 Polish Symphony as an Electronic Black Metal Opus with Saxophones". www.vice.com. April 18, 2016. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
- "Colin Stetson Makes You Forget Everything You Knew About the Saxophone". Noisey. May 5, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
- Huey, Steve. "Transmission Biography". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved August 8, 2013.
- Michaels, Sean (March 24, 2011). "Bon Iver announces details of second album". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
- Dennis, Zel (February 6, 2012). "Colin Stetson - The History of Warfare Volume 2 - Judges". modernbarisax.com. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
- Lane, Anthony (June 8, 2018). ""Hereditary" Delivers a New Kind of Horror". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 4, 2018.
- "2011 Polaris Music Prize Long List announced". AUX.TV. Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
- ATP curated by Jeff Mangum, atpfestival.com; accessed April 19, 2015.
- "Polaris Music Prize Unveils 2013 Long List" Archived June 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. Exclaim!, June 13, 2012.
- "Colin Stetson". Subbacultcha. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
- Mejia, Paula (April 20, 2017). "Review: Colin Stetson, 'All This I Do for Glory'". NPR. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
- "Hereditary review: The singularly most terrifying horror film in years". The Independent. June 19, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
- Fordham, John (January 17, 2013). "Colin Stetson/Mats Gustafsson: Stones – review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
- Monroe, Jazz (April 7, 2023). "Tim Hecker: No Highs review – ambient music that reflects our polluted world". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
- "CST080 ESMERINE: La Lechuza | Constellation Records". cstrecords.com. Retrieved April 26, 2016.
- Empire, Kitty (February 14, 2016). "Animal Collective: Painting With review – dada pop to pogo to". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
- "All the artists set to appear on the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack". The Independent. October 25, 2018. Retrieved April 27, 2023.
