Best of SXSW: Colin Stetson

Posted by Mark Teo in Festivals

Avant-jazz is the label given to Colin Stetson, the one-time touring member of Arcade Fire and Bell Orchestre, but that'd be incorrect. He's a saxophonist first, an athlete second. And I'll go ahead and say it: He performed the most jaw-dropping set of SXSW.

Using a circular breathing technique and some fancy fingerwork, Stetson creates incredible sounds with his sax: Sometimes, it sounds like finger-tapping on an electric guitar. Sometimes, he manages to spit out rhythms breathing through his nose. Others, it sounds like a cheap Korg or feedback from a blown stack. And sometimes, if rarely, it sounds like a saxophone.

Most impressively, though, he manages to layer these sounds all in the space of a single fucking song.

That makes for a stunning performance, on that leaves him visibly out of breath after every song. Indeed, this might be avant-jazz, but we're calling it indefinable. Listen to New History Warfare Volume 2: Warfare, his latest album, and determine your own labels. Or check the video below for a preview.

No, seriously. Check the video. Hearing is believing.

 


more in Music Features     |     posted Mar 20th, 2011 at 4:34pm     


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