October 6 street date. Over the course of his career, Sufjan Stevens has blurred distinctions between the major and the minor, between the details that colour our existence and the big events that frame our lives. He has turned historical footnotes of States into kaleidoscopic pop, and rendered the immeasurable grief of loss with intimacy and grace. "Javelin", Sufjan's first solo album of songs since 2020's "The Ascension" and his first in full solo singer-songwriter mode since 2015's "Carrie & Lowell", bridges all these approaches. Sufjan uses the quietness of a solitary confession to ask universal questions in songs we can share communally. Accompanying the CD and LP formats of the album is a 48-page book of art and essays. With a series of meticulous collages, cut-up catalog fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative color fields, Sufjan builds order from seeming chaos and vice versa. And toward the middle of it all are 10 short essays by Sufjan, another window into the process that informed "Javelin".
October 6 street date. Over the course of his career, Sufjan Stevens has blurred distinctions between the major and the minor, between the details that colour our existence and the big events that frame our lives. He has turned historical footnotes of States into kaleidoscopic pop, and rendered the immeasurable grief of loss with intimacy and grace. "Javelin", Sufjan's first solo album of songs since 2020's "The Ascension" and his first in full solo singer-songwriter mode since 2015's "Carrie & Lowell", bridges all these approaches. Sufjan uses the quietness of a solitary confession to ask universal questions in songs we can share communally. Accompanying the CD and LP formats of the album is a 48-page book of art and essays. With a series of meticulous collages, cut-up catalog fantasies, puff-paint word clouds, and iterative color fields, Sufjan builds order from seeming chaos and vice versa. And toward the middle of it all are 10 short essays by Sufjan, another window into the process that informed "Javelin".
September 24 street date. CD edition. It may be tempting to reduce "Convocations" into a longform ambient anomaly within Sufjan Stevens' vast catalogue. It is, however, neither an anomaly nor entirely ambient. This is not a side project. From his numerous dance scores for New York City Ballet to instrumental albums such as "Enjoy Your Rabbit", "Aporia", and "The BQE", Stevens spends at least half his working life making largely instrumental music, as he has for decades. Stevens invokes the lessons of Morton Subotnick, Maryanne Amacher, Christian Fennesz, Brian Eno, and Wolfgang Voigt here. As musically erudite as it is emotionally experienced, "Convocations" can be dissonant, vertiginous, rhythmic, repetitive, urgent, or calm - that is, all the things we undergo when we inevitably live through loss, isolation, and anxiety. Indeed, "Convocations" moves like a two-and-a-half-hour requiem mass for our present times of difficulty, its 49 tracks allowing for all these feelings to be felt.
Please note new street date: September 24. It may be tempting to reduce "Convocations" into a longform ambient anomaly within Sufjan Stevens' vast catalogue. It is, however, neither an anomaly nor entirely ambient. This is not a side project. From his numerous dance scores for New York City Ballet to instrumental albums such as "Enjoy Your Rabbit", "Aporia", and "The BQE", Stevens spends at least half his working life making largely instrumental music, as he has for decades. Stevens invokes the lessons of Morton Subotnick, Maryanne Amacher, Christian Fennesz, Brian Eno, and Wolfgang Voigt here. As musically erudite as it is emotionally experienced, "Convocations" can be dissonant, vertiginous, rhythmic, repetitive, urgent, or calm - that is, all the things we undergo when we inevitably live through loss, isolation, and anxiety. Indeed, "Convocations" moves like a two-and-a-half-hour requiem mass for our present times of difficulty, its 49 tracks allowing for all these feelings to be felt.
Please note new street date: October 2. "The Ascension" is the eighth studio album from singer, songwriter and composer Sufjan Stevens and is the long awaited follow-up to Stevens' "Carrie & Lowell", one of the most acclaimed albums of 2015. In the time between "Carrie & Lowell" and the forthcoming "The Ascension", Stevens also released Oscar-nominated music for the Luca Guadagnino film "Call Me By Your Name"; a collaborative album entitled "Planetarium" with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner (The National) and James Mcalister; "The Decalogue", a solo piano work performed by Timo Andres; and scored several works for ballet. "The Ascension" is musically expansive and sweeping in thematic scope. The album is at heart a pop record, Sufjan's first. And when it came to writing these songs, Sufjan's goal was simple: keep it moving. 80s and early 90s jams informed Sufjan's songwriting on this record, with Janet Jackson's brilliant "Rhythm Nation" as guiding light - both for the pop framework and the underlying political themes. The beats on "The Ascension" sound a lot like those great 80s beats: honed, skillful, yes, but also big and loud and thick and, well, just straight up fun. The hooks are obvious and catchy and like any good pop song, last way past when you’re done listening to the song. Sufjan's vocals on "The Ascension" are soft, beautiful, natural, real, true.
Please note new street date: October 2. "The Ascension" is the eighth studio album from singer, songwriter and composer Sufjan Stevens and is the long awaited follow-up to Stevens' "Carrie & Lowell", one of the most acclaimed albums of 2015. In the time between "Carrie & Lowell" and the forthcoming "The Ascension", Stevens also released Oscar-nominated music for the Luca Guadagnino film "Call Me By Your Name"; a collaborative album entitled "Planetarium" with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner (The National) and James Mcalister; "The Decalogue", a solo piano work performed by Timo Andres; and scored several works for ballet. "The Ascension" is musically expansive and sweeping in thematic scope. The album is at heart a pop record, Sufjan's first. And when it came to writing these songs, Sufjan's goal was simple: keep it moving. 80s and early 90s jams informed Sufjan's songwriting on this record, with Janet Jackson's brilliant "Rhythm Nation" as guiding light - both for the pop framework and the underlying political themes. The beats on "The Ascension" sound a lot like those great 80s beats: honed, skillful, yes, but also big and loud and thick and, well, just straight up fun. The hooks are obvious and catchy and like any good pop song, last way past when you’re done listening to the song. Sufjan's vocals on "The Ascension" are soft, beautiful, natural, real, true.
|
Recherche de catalogue
