Masterfully and very much impressively balancing between an expansive avant jazz sound, and a more experimental approach that touches on many different aspects of dark and extreme music, like noise, drone, post rock, metal and contemporary electronics, the work of rising film composer, Colin Stetson, feels like the epitome of what we like to call "genre fusion."
The list of names with which he has collaborated in the past is mighty impressive, and includes acts such as Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, TV On The Radio, Feist, Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Bill Laswell, Evan Parker, The Chemical Brothers, Animal Collective, Hamid Drake, LCD Soundsystem, The National, Angelique Kidjo, Fink, and David Gilmore. You may have also noticed the artist as part of the post metal quartet, Ex Eye, who put out an much notable album on Relapse last year, or his impressive solo record, Sorrow - A Reimagining of Gorecki's 3rd Symphony.
Stetson has recently earned much well deserved appreciation for his work for the horror film, Hereditary, and he's keeping up the momentum with his excellent score for the upcoming series, The First, which debuted in September on Hulu.
The artist provides more insight about his new work for The First: "The music of The First is built on a foundation of stark and intimate qualities as exemplified by much of my solo saxophone repertoire, enhanced and expanded upon in every direction, from the epic orchestral character of horn and low brass fanfare, to the fragility and humanly intimate nature of muted solo piano. The breadth and scope of the overall narrative, comprised of these many real and extremely human stories of ambition, of love, and of grief and loss, has made it possible for me to fully explore such a multitude of aural approaches, resulting in a score which is as sonically and stylistically disparate as the personal stories of each of our characters, woven together by the common thread and themes of this grand shared purpose and of the sacrifices made by all in it’s service."
The End is a captivating, brooding soundscape which builds to a cathartic, rich outburst, much spacious and completely in line with the show's sci-fi theme.
The soundtrack is released September 28th, 2018 on New Deal/Record Collection, with a vinyl edition scheduled to come this winter.
ZR