Last year, Colin Stetson shared the album When we were that what wept from the sea. The saxophonist and composer is currently composing the upcoming Karrie Crouse-directed film Hold Your Breath, and his soundtrack for Adult Swim’s Uzumaki will soon be released. Today, he’s announcing the new solo LP The Love It Took To Leave You. The title track is out now as the lead single.

“The first and titular song on my latest record, performed on solo alto saxophone, ‘The love it took to leave you’ is a love letter to self and to solitude and to tall old trees that sway and creak in the wind and rain,” Stetson said in a statement.

The Love It Took To Leave You is his first solo recording since 2017. It was recorded over the span of a week in early 2023 at Montreal’s The Darling Foundry, a 144-year-old former metalworks facility. “The essence of it is me,” Stetson said about the album. “It’s the most personal thing that I do — and can do. There’s an evolution of my body and technical capabilities that keeps on, so every time I make another record, there are things that I could only have played now.”

Hear “The Love It Took To Leave You” below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “The Love It Took To Leave You”
02 “The Six”
03 “The Augur”
04 “Hollowing”
05 “To Think We Knew From Fear”
06 “Malediction”
07 “Green And Grey And Fading Light”
08 “Strike Your Forge And Grin”
09 “Ember”
10 “So Say The Soaring Bullbats”
11 “Bloodrest”

TOUR DATES:
05/14 – Ottawa, ON @ St Albans Church
05/15 – Ottawa, ON @ St Albans Church
05/16 – Toronto, ON @ Axis Club
08/21-23 – MUTEK @ Montreal, 25th Anniversary
09/07 – Vancouver, BC @ Christ Church
09/08 – Seattle, WA @ TBD
09/09 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
09/10 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
09/12 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Hall
09/14 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theater (Album Release Show)

The Love It Took To Leave You is out 9/13 on Envision.