All This I Do for Glory

April 28, 2017 8:35 AM

Saxophonist Colin Stetson has a new album out today, All This I Do for Glory. As is the norm for his solo work, Stetson builds an astonishingly deep and varied soundscape using only his bass saxophone and his voice. Even when the music videos for Spindrift and In the Clinches [epilepsy/migraine trigger warning for flashing light and dark] show intimate and close-up looks (like, inside the saxophone close) at just how he summons forth all that sound, it's difficult to believe it's all coming from one man, live, in a single take. Stetson cites early 90s electronica as an influence on this album, and he's engineered and mixed the album himself.

Stetson is also a member of a new post-metal band, Ex Eye, with Greg Fox, Shahzad Ismaily, and Toby Summerfield. They have no album out yet, but they have performed together, which you can check out here and here.

(Colin Stetson previously: 1, 2, 3, 4)

posted by yasaman (14 comments total)

Sweet! New CanCon!
posted by Kitteh at 9:31 AM on April 28, 2017

This is very relevant to my interests, thank you.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 9:34 AM on April 28, 2017

All This I Do for Glory currently has a score of 81 on Metacritic, where you can find aggregated reviews.
posted by yasaman at 9:52 AM on April 28, 2017

Oh gosh, I just love this guy. Thanks for posting!
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 10:04 AM on April 28, 2017

First time I heard Colin Stetson live, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The sound sent shivers up and down my back. Absolutely amazing.
posted by hoodrich at 12:21 PM on April 28, 2017

Amazing! I am buying this album right now.
posted by horopter at 2:56 PM on April 28, 2017

Oh, nice. Track 1 has some very Thom Yorke vocals.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:44 PM on April 28, 2017

Yeah, this album seems rather more accessible to my ear than Stetson’s earlier material? Quite dark, naturally, but poppier?
posted by Going To Maine at 4:21 PM on April 28, 2017

Yay! Thanks!
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:28 PM on April 28, 2017

It's definitely more accessible, which is in no way a slam on the music, at least not from me. The appeal of Stetson literally howling in mingled agony and rage into a giant saxophone and just generally sounding like the screams of an eldritch monster from the deeps is probably limited, after all, so it's maybe not hard to sound more accessible than that. I'd venture to say the slightly more poppy sound is the electronica influence talking. But I dunno, personally I found Never were the way she was pretty accessible too! So maybe I'm not the best judge, what with being deeply into all variations of Colin Stetson howling into a giant saxophone.
posted by yasaman at 4:42 PM on April 28, 2017

My favorite saxophonist maybe of all time. Just fucking incredible. Loving this new record so much.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:56 AM on April 29, 2017

This is the sort of thing I like.
posted by Frowner at 12:14 PM on April 29, 2017

My favorite saxophonist maybe of all time. Just fucking incredible. Loving this new record so much.

There’s a similarity to to Pierre Favre’s work with Paul Giger on Alpstein
posted by Going To Maine at 2:56 PM on April 29, 2017

Oops - sorry, I meant Jan Garbarek; Favre’s on percussion.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:57 PM on April 29, 2017