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Sufjan Stevens is no stranger to ambitious numerical concepts-- his 50-state strategy, like Howard Dean's, has generated no small amount of disbelief-- but the Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter has tended to keep even his epic songs to around the 7-minute mark. Then there was last year's half-hour BQE project. Stevens' new cover of Asthmatic Kitty signees Castanets' dark-hued Cathedral duet "You Are the Blood", recorded for the Dark Was the Night compilation, clocks in around 10 minutes, and it's an impressive encapsulation of his past musical directions as well as those that could be still to come. (An edited version is on the Dark Was the Night MySpace today).With the rhythmic complexity and noisy IDM experimentation of Radiohead's early-2000s work, "You Are the Blood" glides seamlessly between the electronics of Stevens' Enjoy Your Rabbit material and the grand symphonics that brought him to his widest audience yet with Illinois. Furiously rocking sections give way to intricately melancholic piano passages. Woodwinds whirl and feedback wails atop crunching digital beats, right before tumultuous horn fanfares fit for the soundtrack to some old violent movie that everybody takes too seriously. It's refined and cacophonous at once, working as much within the classical and jazz traditions as folk and/or rock-- Gerswhin meets Yorke, maybe? Then there's the song's portentous central metaphor.Stream:> Sufjan Stevens: "You Are the Blood" (Castanets cover)[from Dark Was the Night; due 02/17/09 via Red Hot]
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Sufjan Stevens: Hear Two Tracks From The Sufjan Stevens Musical’s Cast Album
submitted by Nick May 22nd 2024 04:00 pm (www.stereogum.com)
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In retrospect, the entire idea of a Sufjan Stevens Broadway musical feels both far-fetched and inevitable. Last year, director/choreographer Justin Peck and playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury’s Illinoise, an adaptation of Stevens’ 2005 classic Illinois, opened in Chicago. Last month, Illinoise came to New York. It’s c...
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Sufjan Stevens: musical ‘Illinoise’ is heading to Broadway
submitted by Nick Mar 22nd 2024 03:00 pm (www.nme.com)
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The 16-week run of shows will begin next month The post Sufjan Stevens musical ‘Illinoise’ is heading to Broadway appeared first on NME.
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Sufjan Stevens: Timo Andres, & Conor Hanick – “Ekstasis”
submitted by Nick Apr 18th 2023 06:00 pm (www.stereogum.com)
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Sufjan Stevens has a long history of writing music for ballets, and he’s about to release a new album of that music. Stevens has a long working relationship with the choreographer Justin Peck, and he’s released his scores for several of Peck’s dance pieces. The most recent was 2019’s Principia, and now Ste...
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Sufjan Stevens: announces new album ‘Reflections’ and shares new single
submitted by Nick Apr 18th 2023 05:00 pm (www.nme.com)
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"It is about energy, light and duality"The post Sufjan Stevens announces new album ‘Reflections’ and shares new single appeared first on NME.
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Sufjan Stevens: Talks Beyoncé, The 50 States, And Why Christmas Is Actually Not His Favorite Holiday
submitted by Nick Nov 30th 2022 04:00 pm (www.stereogum.com)
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Among other throughlines in his career, Sufjan Stevens has long been a patron saint of off-kilter Christmas music. He has recorded more than 100 Christmas songs spread across various EPs, mostly collected on the box sets Songs For Christmas and Silver & Gold; this was the context for a rare interview granted to Vulture’s Craig...
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