Review
by Matt Collar
Colin Stetson's 2008 album New History Warfare, Vol. 1 showcased the saxophonist/multi-reedist's phenomenal multiphonic improvisation style and circular breathing technique. Released in 2011, New History Warfare, Vol. 2: Judges features a similar exploratory solo saxophone approach that is nothing short of mind-blowing. Stetson uses the circular breathing style, recorded in single takes and occasionally with overdubs, to create atmospheric and hypnotic loops that sound like layered analog keyboards more than saxophones. In that sense, the tracks here often bring to mind something along the lines of Jean Michel Jarre crossed with Roscoe Mitchell. These tracks allow Stetson to skronk and pulse, wheeze and then soar with white jet-engine noise that is never purposeless and always controlled. Also featured here are a few spoken word sections with avant-garde icon Laurie Anderson -- including the poetic "A Dream of Water" -- that lend a cinematic quality to the proceedings. Elsewhere, vocalist Shara Worden delivers a haunting lead on the spiritual "Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes." Primarily, however, it is Stetson's transcendent and muscular ability to layer sound, breath, and rhythm in a meditative compositional style that sticks with you long after Judges is over.
Tracks
Title Composer Time
1 Listen Now! Awake on Foreign Shores Stetson 1:30
AMG Pick 2 Listen Now! Judges Stetson 5:13
3 Listen Now! The Stars in His Head [Dark Lights Remix] Bell Orchestre 5:30
4 Listen Now! All the Days I've Missed You(ILAIJ I) Stetson 1:15
5 Listen Now! From No Part of Me Could I Summon a Voice Stetson 2:15
AMG Pick 6 Listen Now! A Dream of Water Anderson, Stetson 3:35
7 Listen Now! Home Stetson 3:12
8 Listen Now! Lord I Just Can't Keep from Crying Sometimes Traditional 4:49
9 Listen Now! Clothed in the Skin of the Dead Stetson 3:40
10 Listen Now! All the Colors Bleached to White (ILAIJ II) Anderson, Stetson 0:36
11 Listen Now! Red Horse (Judges ll) Stetson 2:57
AMG Pick 12 Listen Now! The Righteous Wrath of an Honorable Man Stetson 2:27
13 Listen Now! Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun Anderson, Stetson, Worden 2:42
14 Listen Now! In Love and in Justice Stetson 4:53
