Colin Stetson was born and raised in Michigan, spent a decade in San Francisco and Brooklyn honing his formidable talents as a horn player, and eventually settled in Montreal. Over the years he has worked extensively live and in studio with a wide range of artists including Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, TV On The Radio, Feist, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Bill Laswell, Evan Parker, The Chemical Brothers, Animal Collective, Hamid Drake, LCD Soundsystem, The National, Angelique Kidjo, Fink, and David Gilmore.
He has developed a unique voice as a soloist, principally on saxophones and clarinets, while his technical prowess is matched by his exhilarating and emotionally gripping skills as a songwriter. Stetson's astounding physical engagement with the bass and alto saxophones produces emotionally rich and polyphonic compositions that transcend expectations of solo horn playing. Stetson pushes the boundaries of his instruments through the avant jazz traditions of circular breathing, embouchure, etc., and is also at home at the nexus of noise/drone/minimalist music that encompasse dark metal, post-rock and contemporary electronic genres.
This is something to which his albums like New History Warfare Vols. 1-3 (2007, 2011, 2013) and 2017’s All This I Do for Glory powerfully attest, not to mention his striking, diverse, and award-winning contributions to film, TV and game scores. These include 2018’s Hereditary and Red Dead Redemption 2, 2021’s Among The Stars, and 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Menu, though his favourites, Stetson confesses, are 2020’s Barkskins and 2021’s Mayday. “I actively shun notions of category and genre in my life and appetites, and most definitely in my own music,” he says. “They’re definitionally contrary to creativity and freedom, and corral the listener and musician alike into a kind of predesignated automaticity I prefer to avoid.”
A recent departure from his cultivated solo aesthetic, SORROW: a reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony is Stetson's first major release as a band leader and the flagship album out on his record label, 52Hz (with the UK's Kartel Music Group). 2017 also saw the release of a self-titled debut from post metal quartet EX EYE, on Relapse Records. His latest album, When We Were That What Wept For The Sea, released May 12 2023, is a masterclass in storytelling and experimental jazz.
