Colin Stetson, FUJI||||||||||TA

Colin Stetson’s recorded output, not to mention studio and live collaborations – with, among others, Lou Reed, LCD Soundsystem, The National, Chemical Brothers, Bon Iver and Bill Laswell – has proven as prolific as it’s praiseworthy. Since the 21st century’s early years, he’s gained a well-deserved reputation as an exceptional musician, his devotion to craft consummate, his commitment to innovation indisputable. Known for assertive, powerhouse performances on the saxophone – chiefly bass and alto, but also soprano, tenor and baritone – for many years he was a wrestler, a sport whose “insane physical extremes” he credits with his style, alongside, among other things, a love for acts like Pixies and Fugazi. He’s similarly at home, though, whatever the musical context, on clarinet, flute, French Horn and cornet. One might even say he operates in a field all his own.

It was at university that Stetson first began playing regularly, “searching, reaching, and exploring the instrument” with Transmission (later Transmission Trio), before heading to San Francisco after graduating and, six years later, Brooklyn. Contributions were made to other artists’ recordings, not least Tom Waits’, and he made his own lowkey records too. It wasn’t, though, until 2007 that his breakthrough album, New History Warfare Vol. 1, was released, and this coincided with his drafting by Arcade Fire, with whom he’d play until 2010. That year he moved to Montreal to join his future (but now ex-) wife, the band’s Sarah Neufeld, with whom he recorded 2015’s Never Were The Way She Was, and the following year he released Sorrow, an extraordinary reimagining of Gorecki’s legendary Symphony of Sorrow. In-between he completed the New History Warfare trilogy, a virtuosic illustration of the “world-building”, as he calls it, that’s critical to much of his solo work, while 2017’s All This I Do for Glory consolidated his reputation, earning multiple nominations for critics’ Album of the Year lists.

Stetson’s nature is defiantly single-minded, and his dogged focus is always evident, his swooping, circling and soaring motifs displaying as much sensitivity as strength. This is something to which his striking – and diverse – contributions to film, TV and game scores also powerfully attest, including, most recently, 2018’s Hereditary and Red Dead Redemption 2, 2021’s Among The Stars, and 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Menu. As distinguished broadcaster Mary Anne Hobbs once observed, Colin Stetson is “an artist that can change the way you actually think about music.”

colinstetson.com

FUJI||||||||||TA is a Sound Artist living in Japan. His unique practice utilizes various natural phenomena that respond to his interest in wanting to hear unheard sounds and noises. In 2009 Fujita hand fabricated a Pipe Organ that has only 11 pipes and no keyboard. Fujita conceived and built it using his imagination, without any prior or specialized knowledge. Designed to create a landscape rather than function as a musical instrument, he took the idea from the Japanese “gagaku”. The air pump (called “FUIGO”) which is kept moving by the left hand when playing, and is based on associations with an ancient blacksmith. This is a unique instrument that Fujita had to learn to play. Recently, he has added a water element, with sound synthesized water tanks, to his performance repertoire. The music consists of water sounds from multiple aquariums alongside his pipe organ and his voice.

Since 2006 he has had many solo performances and collaborative works with musicians, including ∈Ｙ∋ (Boredoms), Akio Suzuki, Keiji Haino, and Koichi Makigami. He has presented his sound installation works in many contexts: the work “CELL”, which made audible the sounds of black soldier fly maggots buried in dirt, was exhibited in Sapporo International Art Festival 2017 and attracted a great deal of interest in Fujita’s artistic practice. A performance with an organ and 4 water tanks were performed in MODE (London) in 2019. In 2020, he released the albums “iki” [Hallow Ground] and “KŌMORI” [Boomkat Editions]

https://soundcloud.com/fujita-yosuke

all ages / licensed event

Thanks to Ontario Creates for support

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Debaser operates on the stolen land of the Anishinaabeg Algonquin people in so-called Ottawa. As a non-Indigenous-led arts organization that presents work by Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists, and which benefits from funding from the Canadian government, we at Debaser strive to remain mindful of how ongoing colonial processes position us in relation to the artists we support and the work we present. Learn more about this land acknowledgement and find educational resources and ways to support at www.debaser.ca/land-acknowledgement

ACCESSIBILITY

St Albans is a wheelchair accessible space, with wheelchair accessible bathrooms available, however neither entrance or bathroom door is automatic.

Bathrooms are also gender neural.

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