Indie jazzman, Colin Stetson, has played and recorded with an amazing roster of musicians, including Bon Iver (on the current tour too), Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, Feist, My Brightest Diamond, Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Jolie Holland, Sinead O’Connor, LCD Soundsystem, The National, and Anthony Braxton.

Stetson’s excellent recent release, New History Warfare Vol.2: Judges (featuring fine guest vocalists, Laurie Anderson and ubiquitous Shara Worden), can be streamed and bought HERE.  The music was captured entirely live in single takes at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango studio, with no overdubs or looping, using over 20 mics positioned close and far throughout the live room.  The smart lads over at Said the Gramophone have said this about the album:  “It is the most exciting and devastating record that I have heard in seasons; it is a roaring, terrible sadness. Twenty microphones, planted like roses around a room – capturing the ripple of notes, the wails of resonance, the violent clack of fingers on keys and the shriek of Stetson’s own voice, sounding through the horn; like Stetson has two hearts, four lungs, can sing two different sorrows at once. Judges sounds like nothing else. It is like being struck by a comet. It is only January but there is an album of the year.”

Below are two clips of Stetson blazing solo at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee this summer.  Check out Part of Me Apart From You and Judges off that record.

Colin Stetson – Part of Me Apart from You from Dan Huiting on Vimeo.

And here’s Judges.

Colin Stetson – Judges from Dan Huiting on Vimeo.

And then check out this black & white footage from Stetson on freak sax at the Drake Hotel.

COLIN STETSON – Live at the Drake Hotel from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.