Colin Stetson’s “When we were that what wept for the sea” is a feat in instrumental experimentation and might very well be his best work yet.
This album is structured thematically like a storm. It begins with some more peaceful works, with a hint at a sort of chaos stirring in the background.
In the first half lies the song “Long before the sky would open,” being possibly one of my favorite compositions from Stetson ever. It perfectly exhibits Stetson’s impeccable ability of multiphonics, producing what sounds like notes from multiple instruments with a sung melody, all at once, all by himself.
A little past the middle of the album, it reaches its most peaceful moment, “The Lighthouse III,” followed by one of its more chaotic, “Writhen.”
This marks a turn in the album, where it seldom lets up on this overwhelming feeling of sorrow. “Behind The Sky” hammers this in, with a barrage of bass saxophone that feels straight out of a horror movie. This track is, more or less, the storm it has been alluding to throughout. But the storm seems more-so representative of Stetson’s real-life grief. In an interview with The Quietus, Stetson stated he composed this album after the passing of his father, saying “… I wrote this for him … Sometimes things happen in life for which we don’t plan. So, I stopped everything and wrote this record.” So yes, while this record thematically presents a sort of story that could be interpreted in many ways, what you truly are hearing is more or less how Stetson viewed his grief and coped with it, and more importantly, it’s a message to his late father; A way to show his love even after his passing.
This album has easily become my favorite of his work and was by far my favorite release of 2023.
Rating: 10/10
