Live on Soundcheck: Colin Stetson 

This guy has well over his 10,000 hours.

He was the perfect guy to make the soundtrack for Hereditary.

Craziest shit I ever heard from a sax. Just amazing! Sounds like electric guitar feed back mixed with ghosts screaming.

Seeing Stetson perform live in an otherworldly experience. He manages to produce the sound of literal war straight from his lungs. Seen him once, planning to see him again in October.

6:43 He was so close to losing consciousness right here. That's dedication!

The four principles to music, at least that I was taught, was rhythm, dynamics, harmony, and melody. What I heard was amazing control of dynamics, a great set of rhythmic motifs, wonderful multiphonics, which correlates to harmony, and a beautiful minimalist melody. The people who say he sucks are saying great musicians like La Monte Young suck. Music is an art. Art can be perceived in many ways. If you don't like it, fine, go away.

Look at his face before (0:05) and after his performance (6:45). Playing this requires so much energy.

ahhh now he's literally singing/talking through the sax while playing his rhythm part and slamming keys down as a form of percussion! holy S*^&^

I almost cried, holy fuck.

The kind of multiphonics that Stetson is doing is far more demanding than standard tuba multiphonics. As well, he's circular breathing. Just because its a genre you don't favour doesn't mean it doesn't take talent to do this kind of stuff.

Fleeting joy is from him

I love the way his voice sounds like tom yorke when he sings through the sax.

The dude was almost going to pass out at the end wow! True dedication

I not once questioned that the high parts in “Among the Sef” could by any chance not be human vocals, until now. My mind is blown.

This guy is such a badass with a saxophone

His sax is possessed

Transcending the instrument! Godly! The circular breathing along with such amazing control is impressive to me in and of itself, but to have the vision to compose this. Not surprising that the comments reveal some ears do not understand what they are hearing. It helps of you are ready to listen outside your traditional musical expectations. Try not "looking" for specific things and just experience the textures and sounds. Your mind will more easily find the organization.

I have asthma and this video just killed me.

circular breathing with a bass sax... im jealous

This is just fucking insane, the amount of skill is just unbelievable

I am amazed and confused. A void in my soul has been filled.

He uses his fingerings as percussion!? (!!!) This is fucking incredible.

Wonderful that everyone likes to make mention of his circular breathing, but why doesn't anyone mention wonderful harmonics he's able to play with as a result? Nearly every track that he's composed showcases exactly this.

All rise for the composer of Hereditary

this dude is a beast!!!!!!! the breathing pattern is amazing!

What a mighty instrument... and a mighty impressive performance

Great artist!

He has some strong pipes.

God! I'm gasping for air just watching this! What a beautiful performance and rather haunting too! His humming sounds so ghostlike!

This is incredible. Wish I had one of those saxes!

I love the whole piece, my favourite section being at 3:27 but I also marvel the end of the song, when he takes his horn away. I don't know how and why but the way he reacts after finishing the piece adds to the whole emotion of the song. Incredible!

2:00 - 2:30 sounds like something straight off of The Glitch Mob. It sounds dope!

Amazing! I heard my father playing this song the other day and after watching this video, I'm blown away that all of those intricate sounds are coming from one man.

This is sublime.

Blown away! Incredible

really cool and creative! great aural textures using multi phonics! A niceshowcase for the musical capacities of the bass sax!

amazing !

Fantastic! Thanks!

more than interesting. not many artists command the sound of their instrument in such way. yet trippy and experimental in timbre and phrasing

My personal hell. I can't wait ❤️ I'm picking this on a loop for eternity. I'm sure the devil approve 🤟😎

The "chorus" part, sounds like he's trying to blow the sax apart, but can't, then he gets mad and growls.

Now THIS is a musician!

The people who say this is bad either haven't seen his work pitched with other forms of media, or they don't like experimental sounds...which, fine, it's unsettling and far from the majority of music people listened to growing up--you can't exactly listen to this 'comfortably'. But to the people that say that he's a bad musician for pushing this instrument to it's technical limit instead of playing something more classical or deciding to bust out some Coltrane, is a huge part of the reason he's so hugely successful. They're making it HIS specific niche that no one is willing to copy. He's willing to break conventions for the sake of conveying emotions that words fail to describe--and beyond that, what traditional music can fall short of when it comes to the abstract. Why others refuse to see this as any sort of 'music', is the reason he's irreplaceable in the industry of making ambient and existential sounding tracks. This is SUPPOSED to make skin crawl. If he wanted to make some traditional sounds, he would, and professionally he has in his past experiences with Tom Waits and Jolie Holland.

Very nice!

i really like what you do whit your voice... really cool

I wonder if anyone on the planet can replicate what he does.

My boy!

These may well be the coolest sounds in existence. I must investigate these techniques and discover if they are possible on large clarinets as well.

We share the same name and we both play sax! I'm happy!

Playing this song =5 hockey matches

Great performance of this piece - the studio compresses the sound a bit, but still great. Check the performance in the video A Take Away Show Part 1 for natural reverb (his living room), which adds a lot to the performance.

Reminds me of Philip Glass but it's so much more.

The first song is called "Awake on Foreign Shores"

All of his music is good

oh my

Vinyl junkies brought me here. Amazing.

mee too!

Found the musical interpretation of covid-19 right there! Aptly named: Judges! As if God is looking down judging us! AMAZING

Only 9,416 views? What the hell? It saddens me that so many people in the world will die without hearing this first.

that's amazing can you do that on a tenor sax too???

He's got something of the Bill Orcutt about him.

I wonder what mouthpiece he uses, just since there's such few bass pieces available.

Our perceptions of musical progression are fundamentally different and probably opposed. This likely has more to do with our philosophies than music appreciation. It doesn't behoove me to convince you that this is music, and I'm sure you feel no obligation to convince me that the music you like is actually music (I agree). I do wish you the best listening to and playing the stuff that makes you tick. A parting note in jest: primordial ooze did play a significant role in the making of modern man.

@theboredomsareOK Totally.

@zacharycrystal I think so too. Thanks:)

You can tell why he's played with Tom Waits!

Can you play "Stardust"?

What do you play? Give us a video that will wow us more than this

Let's all chip in and buy him a didgeridoo.

@UrbaneScorpion it appears so

Came here from the work he did on Red Dead Redemption II

No, I'm saying that he's talented as well.

the valve percussion is like the hooves of the horses on the cover...trippay

Phillip glass on the sax

@eggynapalm im sure the case is more likely that our lungs are much, much more likely to give up on us than his are to ever show a sign of weakness lol

But what he's doing isn't just a rhythm; as you yourself have stated, he's employing multiphonics among other "tricks". He hasn't incorporated these to create a robust rhythm. There is a melody here, even if an it's conventional one. You may well contest that music is not merely the juxtaposition of rhythm and melody and I'd agree. If there's anything to learn from the last half-century of music it's that listening has at least as much to do with music as "playing" does (think Cage's 4'33").

The chord progression reminds me of something out of TRON.

i play bari mouthpiece on bass,most of bass players do

wtf how

What was the name of the first song he played?

i think he's the equivalent of Tuvan throat singing in North America.

0.5 is best speed for this (if you like blues that is)

Pobre los vecinos

Pedal tones. some of this almost sounds like ring modulation.

声が聴こえる…！！∑(๑ºдº๑)

submachine gun

Circle breathing? Bass sax? Is that even possible

over done but perfect for npr i wept when i heard this

I understand your dislike of Stetson's use of the bass sax. I also appreciate your respect for music. But I feel your comments about real music ignore well recognized musical movements (e.g. avant-garde, minimalism, electronic, etc.). Yes, many of the categories classical and modern music employ don't always apply to these movements. That does not discount their being music. If you discredit this music for the reasons you've stated, you are discrediting Cage, Reich, Riley, Moroder, among others.

Very interesting technique. Great background music for science-fiction movie. But please excuse me while I return to listening to Adrian Rollini.

How to turn a sax into a didgeridoo

Im sure this view counter is broken 2 536 600 views is the normal one & i think 2 deaf people voted

Correction: "There is a melody here, even if an it's conventional one." should read "There is a melody here, even if it's an unconventional one."

It takes so much breath to play a bass sax. That's the reason why nobody plays it often.

"But it's very difficult to play" she said. "Madam, I wish it were impossible to play."

we don't need to, the man is a genius-lover with is instrument! But you can chip in and buy me a bariton-sax :)

ridiculous - he may die one day mid performance playing like that

he looks like he's in serious pain...

I think we can all agree this guy blows

go ahead and tell me all you know and why this isn't music then