Colin Stetson
In the universe of cinematic soundscapes, Colin Stetson is a master manipulator. His provocative ability to create tactile sounds that get beneath you skin and into dark parts of your brain is impressive and beautifully unnerving. I first found out about him right after seeing Ari Aster's 2018 supernatural horror film Hereditary as Stetson wrote the score that is as mind bendingly terrifying as the movie itself. Stetson's ability to morph classically styled orchestrations into massive dark and supernatural manifestations of sound is inspired and his work on that movie deepened the psychological impact of a family imploding at the hands of an other wordly darkness.
His mind altering music is gracing the upcoming movie Color Out Of Space, a film by Richard Stanley and based on an HP Lovecraft short story "The Colour Out of Space" and stars Nicolas Cage. The track Contact, in terms of dread, goes for the throat immediately and in a Lovecraft-esque way, Stetson creates a darkly alien ambiance by making the supernatural terror tactile and physical (in a sense). You can hear ripples of sound skate across the aural landscape like some creature breathing and the droning waves beneath tense dark orchestration portend an ominous storm coming. And it does, massively, intensely feeding your imagination with a blanket of dread, of insanity. Dense dark angelic sounds crash into those droning waves that overlap creating stabs of dissonance that might even hurt your head, you can hear rapid heartbeats besides your own... but enough said, I will leave well enough alone and let you experience this beautiful terror for yourself.
-
Robb Donker
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Colin Stetson was born and raised in Ann Arbor, spent a decade in San Francisco and Brooklyn honing his formidable talents as a horn player, eventually settling in Montreal in 2007. Over the years he has worked extensively live and in studio with a wide range of bands and musicians 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.
Meanwhile he has developed an utterly unique voice as a soloist, principally on saxophones and clarinets, his intense technical prowess matched by his exhilarating and emotionally gripping skills as a songwriter. Stetson’s astounding physical engagement with his instruments (chiefly bass and alto saxophones) produces emotionally rich and polyphonic compositions that transcend expectations of what solo horn playing can sound like.
Most recently, in a departure from his cultivated solo aesthetic, came SORROW: a reimagining of Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony; Stetson’s first major release as a band leader and the flagship album out on his record label, 52Hz (a collaboration with Kartel Music Group of the UK). 2017 also saw the release of new projects, including a self- titled debut from post-metal quartet EX EYE (with Greg Fox, Shahzad Ismaily, and Toby Summerfield) out on Relapse Records. 2018, of course, saw his score for Ari Aster's debut film Hereditary released to critical acclaim.
*** 'The First' score info ***
"More than anything, it was Colin Stetson’s music that inspired the creation of The First. His compositions and performance style were unlike anything I had ever heard. They take you on a vast journey, both epic and intimate." - Beau Willimon, Executive Producer
Coming off the numerous accolades for his sinister score for Hereditary this past spring, avant-garde composer Colin Stetson brings his boundary-pushing scoring talents to the upcoming series The First, which debuted in September on Hulu. Starring Sean Penn, LisaGay Hamilton, Natascha McElhone and more, the series chronicles a crew of astronauts as they battle peril and personal sacrifice as they race to become the first humans on Mars. Stetson's otherworldly, organic approach provides an active backdrop that is something of a character of its own throughout. Check out the trailer on YouTube, laced with Stetson's music.
"The End," the initial track taken from the score, is streaming today via Soundcloud. The soundtrack is set for release September 28th on New Deal/Record Collection, with the vinyl edition set for release this winter. New Deal, the new label from Grammy award winning producer Blake Mills, launches with this new score as it's inaugural release. "There’s a total inseparability between his writing and playing; together they conjure something primordial and beyond language," Mills describes. "I remember knowing immediately that I would be a lifer, a devout fan, with a preemptive love for all his music that I hadn’t even heard yet."
From Colin Stetson: "The music of The First is built on a foundation of stark and intimate qualities as exemplified by much of my solo saxophone repertoire, enhanced and expanded upon in every direction, from the epic orchestral character of horn and low brass fanfare, to the fragility and humanly intimate nature of muted solo piano. The breadth and scope of the overall narrative, comprised of these many real and extremely human stories of ambition, of love, and of grief and loss, has made it possible for me to fully explore such a multitude of aural approaches, resulting in a score which is as sonically and stylistically disparate as the personal stories of each of our characters, woven together by the common thread and themes of this grand shared purpose and of the sacrifices made by all in it’s service."
Stetson is equally at home in the avant jazz tradition of players who have pushed the boundaries of the instrument through circular breathing, embouchure, etc. (i.e. Evan Parker, Mats Gustafsson) and at the nexus of noise/drone/minimalist music that encompasses genres like dark metal, post-rock and contemporary electronics (i.e. Tim Hecker, Ben Frost – both of whom have mixed or remixed Stetson recordings).
"Colin Stetson was the first decision made when we began putting together the team for The First," explains Executive Producer Jordan Tappis. "There was no debate. His prodigious creative spirit aligned perfectly, in tone and substance, with the world we were beginning to build for our inaugural season. Colin's resulting score plays as significant a role as any other creative element in the series."
No comments:
Post a Comment