Colin Stetson, Brìghde Chaimbeul – Dirt dance

Colin Stetson and Brìghde Chaimbeul share “Dirt dance”, the latest piece from their collaborative album All the Light in the World. Stetson’s been reshaping what the saxophone can do for nearly two decades now, working through circular breathing and percussive mechanics to get sounds out of the horn that don’t sound like a horn at all; he’s also scored Hereditary and The Menu. Chaimbeul works on the opposite end of the instrumental spectrum, playing Scottish small pipes rooted in the traditions of the Isle of Skye, and has built a reputation for pulling those traditional forms into something more minimal and exploratory.

Put together, the two instruments cover a lot of ground: drone, sustained tones, and long stretches where breath and reed do more work than melody. It’s not an obvious pairing on paper, saxophone and small pipes come from entirely different musical worlds, but the record leans into the overlap between them rather than smoothing it out. I wasn’t sure two solo virtuoso players this different would find common ground this easily, and the fact that they do is the most interesting thing about the track.
It’s a patient listen, and one that rewards sitting with rather than skimming through.