Colin Stetson releases All the light in the world, made with Scottish piper Brìghde Chaimbeul, on Friday 11 September through Envision Records. He plays Theatre Outremont the same night.
Eight tracks, two musicians, no one else on the record. Stetson and Chaimbeul wrote every song together, his saxophones against her Scottish smallpipes, and nothing was brought in to fill the gaps.
Lead single “Dirt Dance” runs seven minutes. “Played on the F mezzo soprano saxophone and Brighde’s Scottish smallpipes, this song is a joyous mathy weaving of melody and modulation, rooted in pulse yet free and floating as it builds to its liftoff,” Stetson said of it.
The two have worked together before. Chaimbeul’s “I Am Disposed Of Mirth” featured Stetson in 2023, and this album grew out of that. She works in experimental Celtic music, which is a smaller world than his, and the smallpipes are quieter and more constrained than the Highland pipes most people picture. Against a baritone or mezzo soprano sax played with circular breathing, the two instruments end up occupying similar territory: continuous tone, no breaks, drone underneath everything.
Stetson has been based in Montreal since 2010. Most people know him from other people’s records, Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Bell Orchestre, or from film work, including the scores for Hereditary and The Menu. He released Nethering earlier this year with Greg Fox and Trevor Dunn. This is the second collaborative album he has put out in 2026.
The Theatre Outremont date falls on release day. It sits between Toronto’s Opera House on 9 September and Le Pantoum in Quebec City on 12 September, the three Canadian stops on a North American run.
All the light in the world tracklist
- To Me, My Love
- Dirt Dance
- Seamount
- Even Though the Frost is Harsh
- Snowfall
- New Moon of the Age
- All the Light in the World
- Time and Absence
