The love it took to leave you

Forged in the bones of a 144-year old foundry in Montreal over a week in early 2024, the latest opus by Colin Stetson is a molten collection of imagistic emotional voyages. Another chapter in a larger odyssey inscribed through every solo recording, The love it took to leave you is a story told through the singular melding of Colin’s breath and body, with an arsenal of saxophones and clarinet. 

Featuring 11 new pieces of emotionally scorching music, Colin also conceived the concept for the artwork: a decayed, singed and iridescent deer skull motif brought to life and fully imagined by Marielle Tepper and Christophe Gilland, that perfectly conveys the themes and feels of the album. “I knew what I wanted the artwork to be from 2020. Thematically, I wanted to give this a sense of a fossil, a bit like ruins, like the story itself. When you look at it, you don't know what it is. Am I looking at the Milky Way? Is this some sort of a nebula? Is it flames? Is it flowers? It’s really evocative of not only the forge but also that it's a love story.” On launch day, an instagram AR filter will be available that will add unsettling visual dimensions to the album cover.

TRACKLISTING

Side A 
1. The love it took to leave you – 7:45 
2. The Six – 6:41 
3. The Augur – 3:00

Side B
4. Hollowing - 3:19
5. To think we knew from fear – 3:39
6. Malediction – 9:22
7. Green and grey and fading light – 4:23

Side C 
8. Strike your forge and grin - 21:52

Side D
9. Ember – 3:14
10. So say the soaring bullbats – 5:14
11. Bloodrest – 4:37