Colin Stetson has released the second single “The Six,” from his upcoming album The Love It Took to Leave You. The album will be released on September 13th through Envision Records. This new song was recorded over a week early this year, at The Darling Foundry, a 144-year-old former metalworks facility in Montreal, that is now a contemporary art complex.
Regarding “The Six” Stetson shares, “One of the first songs I wrote for this record, The Six is a vengeful strut. Played on solo bass saxophone, this one’s big and mean with long arms and a toothy grin.”
Listen to “The Six” :
In the press release, this album is described as a carefully sequenced ride that travels through intense territories, “punctuated with tragic melodies that seek transcendence, epic and frenzied shredders, and many shades of scary beauty, betrayal, and redemption.” The Love It Took To Leave You is an origin story situated on a timeline predating the New History of Warfare trilogy.
Stenson is known for working in a plethora of genres, such as jazz, metal, classical, electronic, pop, rock, and folk. In The Love It Took To Leave You, Stenson reports that he looked back at the nineties for inspiration when he started conceiving his solo music and creating his style. He immersed himself in early electronica and doom metal and counterbalanced that aesthetic with his personal musical history.
Stetson will be hiding the road next month going into the fall.
Colin Stenson Tour Dates:
21/08/24 – 23/08/24 – Montreal, QB – MUTEK Montreal, 25th Anniversary
07/09/24 – Vancouver, BC – Christ Church Cathedral
08/09/24 – Seattle, WA – The Vera Project
10/09/24 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
12/09/24 – San Francisco, CA – Great American Music Hall
14/09/24 – Los Angeles, CA – El Rey Theatre
Stenson’s upcoming album The Love It Took To Leave You is described as a vulnerable yet ferocious album, it’s a full-throttled culmination of decades of technical, physical and creative labor between a man and his saxophone. Stenson records his solo records in one take, with no virtual effects, or overdubbing, due to his dedication to recording the reality of what happens in the moment. Stenson admits that The Love It Took To Leave You, is his most fully released work, being a great combination of technical musical and compositional complexity and achievement.
“The essence of it is me. It’s the most personal thing that I do—and can do. There’s an evolution of my body and technical capabilities that keeps on, so every time I make another record, there are things that I could only have played now.” -Colin Stenson
The Love It Took to Leave You TRACKLIST
Side A
- The love it took to leave you – 7:45
- The Six – 6:41
- The Augur – 3:00
Side B
4. Hollowing – 3:19
5. To think we knew from fear – 3:39
6. Malediction – 9:22
7. Green and grey and fading light – 4:23
Side C
- Strike your forge and grin – 21:52
Side D
- Ember – 3:14
- So say the soaring bullbats – 5:14
- Bloodrest – 4:37
Photo Credit: Mauricio Alvarado