Colin Stetson, born and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan, spent a decade in San Francisco and Brooklyn honing his formidable talents as a horn player before eventually settling in Montreal in 2007. Over the years he has worked extensively with a wide range of bands and musicians, including Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver and The National.

Stetson has developed an utterly unique voice as a soloist, principally on saxophone and clarinet. His astounding physical engagement with his instruments (chiefly bass and alto saxophones) produces emotionally rich and polyphonic compositions that transcend expectations of what solo horn playing can sound like. He is at home in the avant-jazz tradition of pushing the boundaries through circular breathing and embouchure, and his noise/drone/minimalist sound encompasses genres like dark metal, post-rock and contemporary electronics.

More recently, Stetson has focused on scoring a number of original soundtracks, including Lavender (2016), which he co-scored with Sarah Neufeld, A24 production Hereditary (2018) and Hulu series The First (2018). He also contributed to the score for award-winning game Red Dead Redemption II (2018) and is set to score the new Adult Swim anime miniseries Uzumaki, an adaptation of Junji Ito’s renowned horror manga, which arrives in 2020.