Barbican Hall, London
“I want it to feel evil.”
Armed with an arsenal of musicians from the London Contemporary Orchestra, the Canadian-American saxophonist and composer recites his spellbinding soundtrack for Ari Aster's 2018 horror movie, Hereditary.
Each footstep can be heard in this cavernous, revered venue. With the spotlight illuminating Stetson’s entrance into the fray, an imminent plunge into the swirling depths of his solo catalogue is breached, gripped by his entrusted tenor saxophone. ‘Spindrift’ ignites his dexterous playing ability, facilitating handmade beats against his instrument whilst somehow, unbeknownst to many of us, accommodating a non-stop fluidity against an ethereal atmosphere - an ultimate omen for the rest of the evening.
Engulfed in a swathe elongated vocal notes amidst its backdrop, akin to an all-consuming whale, yet, human-like in its timbre, Stetson transcends to the greater depths of the Marianas Trench: otherworldly in its cinematic scope. As we continue to his more recent track, ‘Safe With Me’, taken from last year’s mesmerising LP, When We Were That What Wept for the Sea, a holistic aura seeps into this crucible assembled for tonight - imbued by an equally reflective, transcending piece of solo work which continues to bewilder and perplex audience members with its multitude of intricate parts.
Stetson is soon accompanied on-stage by over thirty musicians from the London Contemporary Orchestra - proving a mere cog in the greater machine for the recital of tonight’s performance of Hereditary’s dissonantly horrifying soundtrack. Whilst intermittent images gradually appear in the background to earmark scenes from the film, the soundscape and levelling amongst the Barbican’s soundsystem offers the perfect supporting role to such an engrossing, gripping performance - precisely capturing every minutiae emitted from each individual instrument.
The clang of metal, the booming of drums patterns, the tearing of paper; such percussive elements bolster such an entrancing recital such as this one, along with the enigmatic lighting rig which encapsulates this multi-sensory experience transfixing us away from our regular, everyday lives. For the music on offer proves typical to such horror films: frightful and dissonant, suspenseful and anxious; allowing Stetson to ultimately showcase the real breadth of his songwriting nous with such an intricately-detailed and convoluted score held at the helm of one of London’s most effective and engrossing venues.
Whilst Hereditary’s soundtrack may not prove itself the most indelible horror film score of all-time, particularly against the likes of Thom Yorke’s Suspiria, Mica Levi’s Under the Skin, or Mike Oldfield’s The Exorcist, such an experience from this evening proved indelible - showcasing Colin Stetson’s dexterous solo and orchestral work to date. Personified by an audience visibly on the edge of their seats throughout, the performance proved nothing short of breathtaking in certain moments, all-consuming in most others; never allowing us to rest on our laurels contained within Stetson’s nefarious world.
9/10
Colin Stetson's latest LP, When We Were That What Wept for the Sea, is out now via 52HZ and can be found below.
Photos is courtesy of Ross Bustin whose work can be found here.