Colin Stetson - New History Warfare pt 2: Judges

Holy fuck. This is shockingly, shockingly good.

Stetson's an enormous talent, has been for years - but this album is a great leap forward, an ice-age kind of leap. Utterly outstanding. Terrifying, thunderous, thrilling, sad. For me recalls, Nat Baldwin, Mark Hollis, Mogwai, Mt Eerie, Alexander Tucker, Phosphorescent's Pride, Born Heller, Alèmu Aga, Richard Youngs, Peter Brötzmann, and fuck i'm gonna drop James Blake in there.

If you don't know him, Stetson's a solo saxophonist. (In the past he has paid his rent as a sideman for Beirut and Arcade Fire.) But his songs are not free or hard-bop jazz, nothing like that: he breathes, sings through his instrument, uses the keys as percussion, making a kind of haunted roaring post-rock. I first saw him on stage opening for Baby Dee.

New History Warfare pt 2: Judges is due from Constellation in February.

Recorded live in single takes, with no overdubs
by Godspeed's Efrim Menuck at the Hotel 2 Tango.

Produced by Stetson and Shahzad Ismaily.

With (several) guest vocals by Laurie Anderson and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden.

There's one song streaming at NPR, and one at Constellation, but honestly this is an album album. Hoping to get the ok on posting another track at Said the Gramophone this week.

He was pretty great when I played with him in Contemporary Performance Ensemble under Fred Frith at Mills about 10 years ago. Been kind of waiting for his name to turn up again. This multiple-microphone live take stuff sounds fantastic and I will definitely pick this up. Like someone who grew up listening to weird post-rock as much as he did Evan Parker.

bump! ...this is AMAZING

Saw him opening for Godspeed a few weeks ago, took me a while to get into it but was enjoying it well enough by the end. If my enthusiasm was less than total it's because, as correctly noted above, he's not a free jazz saxophonist (although his use of circular breathing is very reminiscent of Evan Parker's). He didn't attack the instrument in the way that I've come to love in the playing of Mats Gustafsson and Peter Brötzmann. Kudos to him though for playing solo sax to 1000 Godspeed fans and making them roar with approval.

yeah i have not heard all of this yet but hearing the ... the righteous anger one, on FMU was kinda instantly mindblowing in a way that nothing else new has been for awhile.

an intense, physical solo-no-overdubs sax record with all sorts of innovation is pretty much exactly what i didn't know i needed in 2011 but am finding utterly compelling in 2011 (possibly in conjunction w/ this exercise: Rolling 2011 thread where I buy and listen to jazz albums for the first time ever)

gorgeous artwork, too

http://cstrecords.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/CST075_22FEB.jpg

whoops, guess you guys can read the constellation press quotes alongside the image! didn't know they came together ;_;

― Damn this thread seems so....different without ilxor (justin vernon) (BON IVER), Thursday, 3 March 2011 15:46 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

haha

i had a brief o_O moment when i thought "lol bon iver/arcade fire" etc. but then set it aside and listened to the stetson record and holy shit, any ppl who despise AF/vernon/etc. and avoid this b/c of the association are missing out on something very different and awesome

btw, the sax on Tom Waits' 00s records (alice, blood money, orphans)? apparently that's this dude

but then set it aside and listened to the stetson record and holy shit, any ppl who despise AF/vernon/etc. and avoid this b/c of the association are missing out on something very different and awesome

word
i figured this was some astral thing from 1972 when i heard it; have suspicious feelings about constellation but this is something else

xpost does this mean he is the guy who ruined jesus gonna be here with a shitty sax solo when i saw tom waits

thing is though that Stetson is far from being alone in solo sax innovation, Mats Gustafsson has been doing wonders like this for years but gets pigeonholed as a jazzman so doesn't really count... not demeaning Stetson for one moment b/c I still think what he's doing is good but the idea that he is the only person playing out-there solo sax is just w/e

this is indeed amazing. like it a lot.

Mats Gustafsson has been doing wonders like this for years

yes-- i've dipped my toes into gustafsson thanks to HOOS raving on the jazz thread-- cosign!

so psyched that people are discovering this

hits me more deeply with every listen
oof

someone was pointing out how harmonically (or, i guess, chordally?) this isn't that adventurous - but in that sense it's more like the blues, the agony and yearning of the interpretation/performance, not the intricacy of the notes. (that said, it is hilarious to call this anything less than intricate.)

am happy to be a gauge of jazzbo permeation into the indie-sphere, here. i don't know that guy, will check him out.

Yeah, the AF/Bon Iver connections hopefully won't hurt folks listening to this. Pretty incredible stuff on first listen. Love this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhH-k1npY64

And thanks for the Mats Gustafsson recommendation. Heard the name, never listened to the music. Starting points?

Brings to mind this masterful-ness a bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7EGQzn8e1k

Gustafsson works a lot of the time in groups, The Thing would be his main vehicle for group work and anything by them is totally recommended. His solo album The Vilnius Implosion from a couple of years ago is also very fine. Here he is in solo mode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPWe4m4yqGM

Evan Parker is also a name to be checked out, his solo circular breathing excursions are pretty phenomenal as seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmQEM7d8v58

Thanks for those anagram. I definitely prefer the "warmth" that I feel from the Colin Stetson and Evan Parker stuff to the sound of that one Gustafsson clip. I will investigate more.

Okay, I have listened through this several more times and the overriding feeling is that I absolutely love it...except for basically any of the vocals. To my ears, they completely mar this otherwise magnificent album. Instrumental version?

i do think laurie's vocals are mixed a bit high, but y'know... nothing's perfect

Yeah, but this album feels like it would've been nearly perfect without those vocals;).

This is pretty much amazingly amazin

played this again today. still gets better each time i hear it. far and away the best thing i've heard in 2011, can't imagine another album would overtake it by year's end. if it does, it'll be a VERY good year...

I like Laurie's spoken word on this
It's mixed really great on headphones, one mic hard left, one mic hard right, Laurie up the middle

Colin Stetson! I used to bump elbows w/ this dude back when he used to play house-parties in Ann Arbor w/ a crazy psychedelic free-jazz outfit called Transmission (this being 10-15 years ago). I had heard about his many high-profile collabs, but I will def have to check this thing out..

Of the other sax dudes mentioned itt, I'm def also down w/ Mats Gustafsson & Peter Brötzmann

He reincarnated that band or moved it when he moved to the Bay Area.

I'm pretty sure he took the name & maybe a couple players. I remember him coming back through the midwest in the early 00s w/ an outfit called the Transmission Trio - anyway, here's this: http://listenlabs.com/transmission.html

yeah, I remember seeing the Transmission Trio at least once.

The sound on this record is so immense and raw, even though it's got so many more silent moments. I'm bracing myself every single time I put it on, it blows me away.

Best I've heard this year.

it's shaping up to be a frontrunner, for sure. so dense and powerful and unique.

actually love shara woden's vocals on this.

This is so, so great:

http://vimeo.com/19110127

Also John Butcher for super-advanced technique allied with great musicality. He does the percussive thing really well, and manipulates feedback through his horn to mindblowing results.

Liking this Stetson record, but it's definitely less free-jazz and more into Terry Riley territory in some respects: the overlapping repetitions and what not.

Hey, what's a good John Butcher record to check out? Is it something that translates well to record, or is it best experienced live? Seems like he does a lot of "playing the room/environment", which is something I definitely feel, but obviously can be tough to translate to a recording.

i think it depends on who he's playing with. I've seen him do really quiet stuff, but I've also seen him actually play the saxophone.

This is so, so good, except for the spoken word parts.

Along similar enough lines, has anybody else on here enjoyed this?
http://boomkat.com/downloads/321345-thomas-ankersmit-live-in-utrecht

this album sounds so good. playing it very loud with the window wide open seems just right for some reason

A predictably sniffy review in The WIRE which opines that you might like this if you've never heard of Evan Parker despite most other reviews and Stetson himself mentioning him as an influence. I told my mate who's really into free jazz about this and he went berserk about it. Said it was appalling like Hooked On Classics or Jean Michelle Jarre.

what's appalling ? Stetson or the wire ?

I don't think The WIRE's appalling. I've bought it every month for the last decade. I just mean you can often tell in advance when they're going to go, 'No, no, no dear boy! You're doing it all wrong...'

In the rush to decry him as a pale imitation of Evan Parker ("He plays with Arcade Fire... Gosh, how middle brow...") they've missed the revolutionary aspect of what he does, which is the way the album is recorded via scores and scores of contact microphones in single takes.

But no, The WIRE's brilliant, and more importantly, it would cease to be brilliant if it didn't maintain clear distance between what they cover and everything else.

My mate thinks it's appalling which I only mention as I see him as a typical consumer of 'difficult', 'avant garde' music.

I love the album. It's one of my favourites of the year so far. I'm currently writing up a feature on Stetson for The Quietus.

didn't know there was a thread about this album! such beautiful sounds. I listen to "The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man" pretty much every night these days.

I could definitely see why such a person would find this album appalling, in that it is neither difficult nor avant garde

I find such people a bit sad.

they've missed the revolutionary aspect of what he does, which is the way the album is recorded via scores and scores of contact microphones in single takes

But that doesn't affect the way I respond to the album as a listener. As I mentioned upthread I am one of those free jazz fans (also a dedicated Wire reader, btw) who is not bowled over by this album, simply because it doesn't sound all that thrilling or innovative when held up next to Parker or Gustafsson in full flight. Fetishizing the way it was recorded is kind of beside the point imo.

i used to have a regular sunday poker game w/ this dude's younger brother. Colin's career has been on a pretty stellar upward trajectory for quite a while now, but, even so, I would not have expected him to drop an unaccompanied solo record that is inexplicably, completely objectively, my favorite album of 2011 thusfar by a wide margin. I mean, I'm normally not even all that crazy about saxophones in general (or maybe I just haven't been listening to the right things?)

i enjoy this record and know nothing about that kind of stuff...

which parker, butcher or gustafsson albums should i be into ?

But that doesn't affect the way I respond to the album as a listener.

really? i didn't care for this much until i read about how it was recorded, that definitely made me hear it in another way.

Yeah, not you anagram but anyone from WIREsville who reckons the process or the philosophy isn't important is being a bit rich really. Also given that what he does is at the other end of the sax scale from Mats, isn't it unfair to compare them?

that is the wire praxis though, anything 'mainstream' making experimental claims usually gets shot down. off the top of my head i think of battles "mirrored" which received a poor review when released, but then made its way to their EOY-list anyway... sure there are more recent examples, haven't had subscription for a while though

Fetishizing the way it was recorded is kind of beside the point imo.

not really, if the point of the music is to focus on rhythm and sound (in a very different way than those other solo sax guys)?

Also given that what he does is at the other end of the sax scale from Mats, isn't it unfair to compare them?

sure their techniques are different but all I said was that it doesn't sound all that thrilling or innovative to me. given that those are the kind of adjectives that are being bandied about in connection with this record I thought the comparison was valid. but yeah Evan Parker would be a better comparison than Gustafsson, both he and Stetson make heavy use of circular breathing for example which Gustafsson doesn't. Parker has that serpentine, fluttery sound which is totally trance-inducing. Stetson can do this up to a point but Parker has been doing it for 40 years.

which parker, butcher or gustafsson albums should i be into ?

What I wrote in another jazz thread:

If you like Stetson then you'd be better off going for one of Parker's solo sax recordings like The Snake Decides or Conic Sections. My favourite Parker line-up would be his trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton, they've done a number of albums of which At the Vortex (1996) is my favourite. Also key: his trio with Alex von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens, of which Winterreise comes recommended.

Re Mats Gustafsson, see my post upthread. Not sure about Butcher.

Saying both "Evan Parker has done this before" and also "I don't give a shit how it was mic'd" leaves me confused.
You're content to write off an artist because you've quickly identified his influences and a key aspect of his technique,
But then you claim that people who admire his innovative mic placement and mixing abilities are fetishists.
I dunno, I mean, when it comes to circular breathing sax players playing at 200 bpm
(Bass sax, in Colin's case), I'm not too hung up on "this has been done before"

Also +1 on any recommendation for The Snake Decides and Conic Sections
But it sounds nothing like Judges, save that it also contains a saxophone

Well I guess there's a difference between admiring a player's technique and admiring his kit or his set-up. I mean, I like Gilmour solos but I have no idea what kind of guitar he uses or how he makes it sound the way it does. At the end of the day all I'm saying is, if you like Stetson you ought to like Parker.

xp

holy shit dudes, this guy is something to see live. and Owen's right, the mic placement isn't some obscure trainspotting shit, it's an integral part of his sound.

IT DOESN'T FUCKING SOUND LIKE AN EVAN PARKER RECORD. YOU ARE BEING BORING. I AM DRUNK. SHUT UP.

(xpost)

At the end of the day all I'm saying is, if you like Stetson you ought to like Parker.

I love Stetson and like/respect Evan Parker even more and on a different level, but I do not think this ^ is an accurate statement.

Finally getting around to hearing this album and I like it quite a bit, but to echo the thoughts of others I might like it even more without the spoken word bits and vocal parts. I just want to hear this dude play his sax all day long. But I did want to address this point:

I could definitely see why such a person would find this album appalling, in that it is neither difficult nor avant garde

I think this is a bit silly and dismissive, particularly wrt to people who aren't up on their Mats or Parker or even Wire. I mean, for someone out there this will be difficult and it may certainly seem avant garde to someone who's coming from, I don't know, Miles Davis as an introduction for them to the possibilities of jazz. I've really liked a lot of what Owen has had to say over the years and totally respect his opinion, but I can't help but sense a bit of the expert sniffing at the newcomer with that, "THIS is NOT difficult nor avant garde". Maybe not to you, but to someone it just might be.

Yeah, but it's just not difficult is it? Some cool teacher in my school used to play shit like Philip Glass and Michael Nyman in assemblies, no one ran out screaming because musically it's quite straightforward and easy to get your head round - even if there is a lot of theory to go with it or knowledge of process to go with it. As is this.

It might sound a bit "odd" at first if you're coming to it not having heard anything similar - a bit inexplicably ragged and harsh but I can't see how that would be a bar to potential enjoyment.

For starters Miles Davis is generally more difficult 'to get' than this surely?

Of course it's impossible to say really as it's totally subjective etc. but we're really just talking about arpegios and simple note progressions repeated. Or pop music as my WIRE reading mate calls it.

For starters Miles Davis is generally more difficult 'to get' than this surely?

Well I guess maybe we are working from different ideas of what "difficult" means. I don't think finding something to enjoy in Miles is that tough, especially his more lauded work. There are melodies, solos and other components pretty easy to grab onto, even as a rookie jazz listener. I don't think there is much on the Stetson album that would provide an "easy" entry point for the novice.

Fair enough. Although I've heard a lot of Miles Davis I only really listen to the electric stuff but I get what you're saying.

it has tons of melodic and rhythmic repetition, in a way that should definitely make sense to anyone with electronic/dance music ears

Damn

Yeah this is cool.

this is great stuff, just heard it for the first time last week, it gets better and deeper with each listen

new one: so far, so good

find it strange that nobody's commented on this already, but then ILM's shift to house and rap exclusivity is almost complete so I barely expect anything else

here's yer stream: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/21/177495625/first-listen-colin-stetson-new-history-warfare-vol-3-to-see-more-light?sc=fb&cc=fmp

I'm interested, just been too busy to check it out yet. Thanks for reminding!

super super competent
but can't help but feel a bit let down on this one, on my listens so far.

only a matter of time until 'brute' ends up in some manic dubstep mix.

I didn't listen to this cuz the idea of all the celebrity guest vox turned me off

the laurie anderson guest spots are pretty cringey, but it really doesn't take up much of the record

oh lol wait so there's a new one? nm

hmm so yeah this first track -- who is that singing? I don't hate this, but I'm a little tired of the abundance of exuberant close harmony singing I've been hearing lately in indie stuff

this is good though. I think he belongs much more to steve reich/bang on a can and to the new agey end of noise than he does to jazz or free jazz.

the singer is the bon hiver guy unfortunately

was intrigued by the prospect of a new stetson LP until I heard that bon iver was doing vocals on some songs. maybe I'm awful, but there it is.

W/e I will still listen to it. I have never knowingly heard a note of BI

I listened to it a lot when NPR was streaming it and really enjoy it. I wouldn't say that I love the vocals but I didn't see them as a problem at all. The Bang on a Can comparison makes sense to me. I hadn't seen this thread before. I had no idea that people compared him to Evan Parker. That comparison seems pretty wrong to me, unless Parker has some more pattern-based work that I'm unfamiliar with.

heard this in other music the other day and ended up buying it; the first time i've bought a record due to hearing it in a shop in years. didn't notice any evan parkerisms.

this is real raw/feel good shit, the new one. i think bon iver is only on a couple tracks. it reminds me of phillip glass, but sort of a blues take. kinda mono-themed. it sounds nothing like evan parker

some of the saxophone stuff sounds like an upright bass. i don't know if he close-mics parts of the instrument, or if there's extra-instrumental layering or what, but at times it recalls a cello sound or something deep, bowed. think of john cale's electrified viola, loose, looping repggios driving the tunes.

err, repggios

the bon iver dude sounds like tv on the radio or some shit. generic. fuck, fleet foxes, all that shit blends in. i guess bon iver got a signature sound or whatever, but i don't recognize it. sorry, bad tangent.

there's some resonant, affecting, hear my train-a-coming shit on this new one. or maybe that's thom yorke

I should probably get into this dude.

The big criticism of Stetson isn't that he sounds like Evan Parker but that he's using the same techniques to do something 'less interesting' or 'less valid' (ie free improv). The trouble with this attack on Stetson is that it ignores his real innovation, which is in recording and mixing the multiple channels from a single take by the use of lots of contact mics - which are placed all over his instrument, him and the room. This is how he ends up with such a massive sound on what is, ostensibly, a solo live saxophone album with a guest vocal. But some critics are all too happy to ignore this because it stands in the way of what they feel they have to do, which is to sneer at an 'indie guy' doing it all wrong.

The Bon Iver guy ruins the new one for me though.

waaaaaaaay too much bon iver. i feel like i'm slighting stetson by being so dismissive, but that guy's fey voice is such a turnoff for me. not so much on that song where he screams, but his voice is just incapable of doing the same kind of heavy-lifting as a laurie anderson or a shara worden.

http://youtu.be/Tu9Qj1ZekSI

i think it's stetson on "brute" ... not sure if that's the song you're referencing tho

it's bon iver on "brute". i think his voice works really well on that one, possibly because i'd never have known it was his voice if i hadn't read it on the sleeve.

Listened to this yesterday and I think I prefer it over pt2. Amazed at how diverse it is, but I also find it kind of painful to listen to - not because of the skronking sounds (I quite like those) but because I know playing like that must surely and slowly be killing him. As such sometimes listening to this guy is like listening to the sounds of an abattoir where animals are slaughtered for the sake of food (that may well be delicious all the same).

huh, i didn't even notice bon iver on this one - thought it was all the better off for having fewer guest spots than the last one and spotlighting his incredible ability as a player instead.

This reminds me of the Holden album in terms of the size of the sound and the textures it explores.

Is playing like this going to "surely and slowly be killing him"? At all?

colin's hale and healthy as hell. does lots of yoga. very disciplined. looks after himself.

Yeah, he looks pretty damn well.

I saw him play back in June, he looked gooooood.

It is super hard on him, though. Wouldn't be surprised if this is him at "the height of his powers" but that we've got up to ten more years at this level

Haven't heard anything else by him, but Judges astounds me!

http://devonrecordclub.com/2013/09/30/colin-stetson-new-history-of-warfare-volume-2-judges-round-54-toms-selection/

holy shit volume 3 is heavy, the singing parts maybe not so much

Yesterday I had the pleasure of transcribing all of Bon Iver's parts on vol. 3 for a children's choir. Today I have the dubious pleasure of having those parts stuck in my head

If I was to produce a Colin Stetson record there would be no guest vocals

i dunno, is diamanda galas still doing thing?

Laurie Anderson's vocals on volume 2 were excellent.

otm. it's not the presence of vocals that bugs so much as the vocalist chosen.

It might delight you to learn that Mr. Stetson just paid me for my work with two pounds of deer meat

Haha! Did you raise the possibility of producing his next one or even collaborating? A man can dream

I can well imagine Stetson fitting some kind of sonic amplifier to his sax & heading out into the snowy wilds in search of prey

If I was to produce a Colin Stetson record, I'd write "no guest vocals" on a chalkboard, fire myself and hire those able people he normally works with (Hecker, Ismaily, Frost)

so you're bon iver is what i'm getting from this

Not to pop the joke, but we can only yearn for a world where Bonny Bear took such a principled stance

Me, I like Justin's contributions. Transcribing his vocal parts I'm blown away by the timbre of his voice-- so many overtones! he sings like a C3-- and also a looseness to his phrasing. Obv I'm a big stan for Laurie and Shara. My desire for "no guest vocals" is greediness on my part, want an uninterrupted 45 minutes of nothing but Colin's own singing and blowing, maintain a unified sonic world, something that reflects the ascetic, disciplined nature of his practice

The ATP recording is great for that

http://www.npr.org/event/music/140920372/colin-stetson-in-concert-atp-festival-2011

https://soundcloud.com/constellation-records/colin-stetson-and-sarah-neufeld-the-sun-roars-into-view/

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld - "The sun roars into view"

From new album 'Never Were The Way She Was' available 28 April 2015 on Constellation:
http://cstrecords.com/cst113/

how did i not know about this guy, this is my shit

Pretty much everyone posting from Eaux Claires has been saying the same thing!

that's how i found out!

Colin Stetson announces new album SORROW, featuring Sarah Neufeld and Liturgy’s Greg Fox

http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/01/colin-stetson-announces-new-album-sorrow-featuring-sarah-neufeld-and-liturgys-greg-fox/

sounds great, i'm excited that Greg Fox is on it.

Streaming!

https://www.wnyc.org/story/premiere-colin-stetson-reimagines-classical-phenomenon/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c7YvSMyIso

Gorecki is pretty low on my list of composers I rate but this is terrific

🤔

this Gorecki album of his is brilliant.

This seemed kinda boring to me. Wanted it to be more Stetson-y, if that makes sense.

OTOH, it being not all that Stetson-y is what makes it so great to me. I've always loved the original recording with Dawn Upshaw and so I was really worried that Stetson would screw this one up, but he's done a fine job I have to say.

this is pretty epic.

looking forward to opening for him & Sarah Neufeld in a few months btw :)

i initially wanted this to be more stetson-y but ultimately liked a lot as it is

New album soon and here's the first track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJHr2DlRog8&feature=youtu.be

link broek :(

Huh, weird, worked fine for me on a check just now.

not working for me either but anyway here it is on bandcamp

https://colinstetson.bandcamp.com/album/all-this-i-do-for-glory

thanks!

This is really good but it's a little frustrating how it's almost a house track, except that it doesn't keep a consistent tempo (actually it would be hilarious to play this in a dance music set).

Another new track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T690rDJ7c80

Ex Eye record waayyyyy outdoes my expectations. It's frigging great

Ooooh yeah

I love the Ex Eye album too. but i don't care for the gorecki.

saw him live last week and he was amazing, one new track in particular was unbelievably intense, I couldn't stop grinning

Gorecki, Ex Eye, love them both

Damn, let me be the last to say this Ex Eye album is great. Now I want Stetson to make an album with GY!BE.

Ex Eye is insanely good. This may be the best thing I've heard this year.

The Hereditary OST is the first thing I've properly loved by CS since Judges. The closing run of Peter, Chasing Peter, The Attic, Reborn and Hail Paemon! is boss.

Discovered this via eoy lists and it's hitting me right today

https://brighdechaimbeul.bandcamp.com/album/carry-them-with-us
https://thequietus.com/articles/32829-brdghe-chaimbeul-carry-them-with-us-review

Brìghse Chaimbeul has risen to prominence since her first album, 2019’s entrancing The Reeling, in a way that few Scottish pipers have achieved, including playing for world leaders at COP26 in Glasgow. Her instrument is the smallpipes, a more portable, practical version of the Great Highland bagpipes which also carry fewer cultural assumptions. Chaimbeul has brought Scottish piping to a new audience with her captivating style, which has affinity with psychedelic drone as well as the folk traditions of the north. On ‘Carry Them With Us’, she shows her complete confidence as a musician through a collaboration with saxophonist Colin Stetson, which was formed initially over Twitter during lockdown.

The album is mostly instrumental, but its tracks tell stories. ‘Banish the Giant of Doubt and Despair’, for example, is a reel that starts quick and spins out of control, reflecting the tale of the princess of an underwater kingdom and the giant of the Western Isles who cannot stop dancing to her song, faster and faster until he falls into the sea and drowns. Melodic cascades flow from Chaimbeul’s pipes as though she can barely restrain them, while a bass drone and subtle, breathy saxophone combine seamlessly to set the scene. Stetson, who has been in several bands including Arcade Fire and has worked with everyone from Anthony Braxton to Tom Waits, is a subtle musician. Despite the unconventional pairing of instruments, they often seem to make a single sound. After her collaboration with major Scottish folk scene figures ‘The Reeling’, she is branching out to make new sounds.

The result is an exciting, sometimes bewitching set of tunes. Some are improvised, the two musicians working together with consummate ease.