colin stetson / emily wells
27-08-2011
zaphod's, ottawa

there's no fundamental reason why a single musician multi-instrumentalist recording project must be rooted in repetitive loops, unless that musician wishes to perform those pieces live without the aid of a backing band. there are two fundamental problems with that approach.

first, it limits the recording to what *can* be performed live using looping technology. sections of the record that could have been beautiful, chaotic, absurd, sublime or elaborately written become trivial and monotonous, sounding like not even a kid with garage band but like a kid looping samples in acid. that the parts are played live into a pedal doesn't seem important to me...

second, it deprives the performance of the dynamics of a live act. even if the music is loop based, a live show still has a certain feel to it. live musicians are inevitably going to vary in intensity, dynamics and timing whether they're playing repetitive patterns or not.

emily is a great singer and she's worked with a live band before. by going solo and working with looping pedals, she's depriving herself and her audience of the backdrop which her vocals need to be effective.

let's hope she gets a band back together soon.

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i'm not sure whether it's due to it's natural sound, feedback on the mic or a bit of distortion at the board, but colin stetson's rusty old saxophone sounds as bad as it looks. fortunately, that's actually a good thing.

there's not really much to say about what stetson does other than to advise you to listen to it and form your own opinion. i am, however, going to point out a few things about the demented sounds he's able to get out of that thing that you likely would only pick up seeing him do it.

first, he seems to utilize some basic physics to get some weird natural sound effects. that saxophone of his is a monstrous and complex instrument, and by swaying it back and forth he's able to get some rather wacky sounds.

second, he uses the natural clicking sounds of his fingers to create some rhythm and i think that's a lot harder to do than may come off on first glance. sure, he's playing in time anyways, but he seems to be consciously modulating the intensity of his fingering as he's going.

third, there were a few points where he seemed to also be *singing*. ever spoken to a reed player about the force required to play the instrument for long intervals? now, look at the size of that thing! the man must have lungs of steel...

the totality of the sound isn't for everyone, and this isn't something i'd travel large distances to experience. however, i'd advise grabbing a beer and checking him out if he comes through your city.

i don't have footage from ottawa, but this is some footage from the same year: