Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol.2: Judges

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release
Soundclips

4...according to our Clinton on Thu 21 Apr, 2011.

You can count on one finger the number of good uses of the saxophone in long and varied history of music. The coda to 'Will You' by Hazel O' Connor notwithstanding, the instrument that was invented by mistake has usually turned up on everything horrible in the world from free jazz skronk to Patrick Wolf's latest mess. In the 1970's even keen sax employer Bruce Springsteen saw sense and wiped the instrument from large swathes of his 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' album leaving sax blower Clarence Clemons to stand around like a spare part during subsequent live performances. No, the saxophone is generally the signifier of bad things. This makes it all the more remarkable that Colin Stetson has produced this thoroughly enjoyable experimental peach of an album using nothing but the joy of sax. The whole thing was recorded live in the studio with no overdubs or looping but the old sqwark machine must be heavily manipulated to produce these heavenly sounds. Rarely does it sound anything like sax, from the Philip Glass with a saxophone staccato jumpiness of 'Judges' and 'The Stars in his Head' to the haunting ambient interlude 'All the Days I've Missed you' Stetson goes all out to single handedly improve the reputation of the instrument. 'From No Part of Me Could I Summon A Voice' again recalls a Glass composition, a jittery chorus of sax honks like an explosion in the car horn factory. Laurie Anderson pops up to add spoken word in a manner that recalls Paddy Macaloon's excellent 'I Trawl the Megahertz opus' while saxes flap away in the background. This really is an excellent piece of work, Stetson achieving the impossible. As I (almost) often say to my girlfriend...more sax please.

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*Super- sessioneer saxophnist for acts like Arcade Fire and TV On The Radio.
*8.2 REVIEW ON PITCHFORK:Once in a while, I can convince myself that it's impossible to say anything truly new
in music. There has been so much music made and documented in the last 50 years, my thinking goes, that the
best we can hope for is an artful re-combination of elements of the past (which seems like more than enough,
most of the time). But then I'll come across a new record that sounds like nothing else I've heard: I can't quite
place it, but its appeal feels so organic and easy to understand, I don't really feel a need to place it, either. Such is
the case with the second solo album from Michigan-born, Montreal-based saxophonist Colin Stetson, New History
Warfare Vol. 2: Judges.
*Uncut Playlist Feb 2011.
*Guest vocals from Laurie Anderson and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond)
*Colin Stetson is a horn player of uncommon strength, skill and genre-defying creativity. He composes and performs
otherworldly songs that combine a mastery of circular breathing technique with percussive valve-work and reed
vocalisations, making a polyphonic solo music that combines influences as diverse as Bach, early metal, American pre-war
Gospel, and the explorations of Jimi Hendrix, Peter Brotzman and Albert Ayler.
*His talents have been widely recognised and employed by artists as diverse as Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, TV On The
Radio and Bon Iver; he also plays in Bell Orchestre and Sway Machinery.
*Colin has been making his mark as a staggering solo performer for several years now, in front of audiences small and
large, from intimate jazz and experimental music venues to big stages, whether opening for Arcade Fire or The National, or
playing at jazz and new music festivals like Moers and London Jazz.
*Stetson's live solo performances are absolutely stunning and uncategorisable and he conveys a commensurate intensity
and iconoclasm on this new studio album of original material. New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is Stetson's second
solo record and his first for Constellation.
*Stetson approaches his solo work with one foot firmly rooted in a pop sensibility, harmonically and in terms of overall song
structure a sensibility on fine display in longer pieces like "Judges", "The Stars In His Head (Dark Lights Remix)" , "Clothed
In The Skin Of The Dead" and "Fear Of The Unknown And The Blazing Sun". He can paint short, ecstatic spirals of rapid-
fire ostinati that move through the entire range of the instrument, full of subtle rhythmic shifts and filigree, as with "The
Righteous Wrath Of An Honourable Man", "From No Part Of Me Could I Summon A Voice" and "A Dream Of Water", all of
which clock in at the 2-3 minute range (and the last of which features a spoken word vocal by Laurie Anderson). Colin can
also shred, especially when rallying the full force of the bass saxophone, whether in the foghorn blasts that open the album
or the gasping syncopated pulse of "Red Horse (Judges II)". The seamless, steamy, multi-timbral drone that underpins
Shara Worden's guest vocal on "Lord I Just Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes" demonstrates another side of Colin's
mastery and sensibility.
*The result is a highly original, experimental, euphoric record that fires on all levels: a document of an astoundingly strong
and gifted player; a compositional tour-de-force; and a studio production bursting with intensity and inventiveness.
*Packaging notes
-CD comes in a custom gatefold jacket printed on 100% recycled 18pt CCNB paperboard in full colour with a matte UV
varnish.
- LP is pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal (Germany) and comes in a jacket printed on 100% recycled 24pt CCNB in full
colour with matte UV varnish. First pressing of LP also includes a limited edition screenprinted poster, a 12"x12"
screenprinted insert card and a CD copy of the album. Artwork by Tracy Maurice.

tracklist

1. Awake on foreign shores 2. Judges 3. The stars in his head (Dark Lights Remix) 4. All the days I've missed
you (ILAIJ I) 5. From no part of me could I summon a voice 6. A dream of water 7. Home 8. Lord I just can't keep from
crying sometimes 9. Clothed in the skin of the dead 10. All the colors bleached to white (ILAIJ II) 11. Red Horse (Judges ll)
12. The righteous wrath of an honorable man 13. Fear of the unknown and the blazing sun 14. In love and in justice

4...according to John Bloor.

Now I’ve seen and heard a few interesting saxophonists such as Peter Brötzmann and Matana Roberts but nothing like Colin Stetson has ever passed my ears or made such an impression.

How to describe this music of his second album “New History Warfare Vol.2: Judges”? Unearthly and incredibly gripping, it swirls about me and my head, invading my senses, driving deep into my consciousness.

Stetson presents an entirely new take on this instrument, building up layers of cyclical sounds, he repeats phrases whilst the emphasis changes all the while from thumping keys to eerie mechanical tones, fraying reedy textures to massively sonorous and intensely pure sounds. I understand the sounds are extracted from a multiple microphone recording technique – it’s extremely powerful, ripping through me in a surprisingly emotional manner.

You wouldn’t believe that a saxophone could sound like this – and there’s only one way to find out and I highly recommend you do so.

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!