Colin Stetson - The Love It Took To Leave You

Album Background & Inspiration
Title & Theme: A deeply emotional solo work, centered on solitude, love, and departure, described by Stetson as “a love letter to self and to solitude and to tall old trees that sway and creak in the wind and rain”

Environment as instrument: Recorded in January 2023 at Montreal’s historic Darling Foundry (a 3500 m³ former metalworks/art space), where the acoustic space itself became a collaborator: “we were really able to move the kind of air that I can move”

Music & Creative Process
Solo Performance: Stetson plays alto and bass saxophone and contrabass clarinet using advanced circular breathing and vocalized techniques. All recordings were done live, with no overdubs or loops

Physicality & Engineering: He uses throat mics to capture breath sounds and percussive key clicks, recording the resonances and echoes of the industrial space .

Improvisation as Composition: Several tracks were improvised on the spot, shaped by the space and sonic intent

Sound & Style
Tonal Range: The record spans from tense, reverberant drones to propulsive, rhythmic passages. Tracks like “Malediction” feature fast, interwoven melodic lines that mimic guitar-like textures

Percussive & Drone Depth: Songs like “Hollowing” and “To Think We Knew from Fear” incorporate heavy, martial percussion with growling sax melodies—evocative of cinematic horror or doom soundscapes

Centerpiece Track: The 21+ minute “Strike Your Forge and Grin” begins with slow drone, builds into rhythmic key-click pulsations, and culminates in a fierce, exhaled climax—described as a “breathtaking achievement