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A week after "All Delighted People", Sufjan surprises with "Age of Adz"

The Age of Adz (pronounced odds) is Sufjan Stevens first full-length collection of original songs since 2005s civic pop opus Illinois. This new album is probably his most unusual, first, for its lack of conceptual underpinnings, and second, for its preoccupation with Sufjan himself. The album relinquishes the songwriter's former story-telling techniques for more primal proclamations unhindered by concepts: there are few narrative conceits or character sketches; there are no historical panoramas, no civic gestures, no literary maneuvers, no expository illustrations drenched in cultural theory, no scene, setting, conflict, resolution, or denouement. Sufjan has stripped away the fabric of narrative artifice for a more primitive approach, emphasizing instinct over craft. The result is an album that is perhaps more vibrant, more primary, and more explicit than anything else he?s done before. The themes developed here are neither historical nor polemical, but rather personal and primal (if even a little juvenile): love, sex, death, disease, illness, anxiety, and suicide make appearances in a tapestry of electronic pop songs that convey a sense of urgency, immediacy, and anxiety as never before seen in this songwriter.

Of course, the theme of unmitigated love (and affection) runs deepest, often with shameless candor. Whether singing about a sleepover, old age, illness, or the Apocalypse, Sufjan can't help but render everything through the lens of love and affection, the desire for contact, closeness, and connection. Perhaps this reveals what we've known all along in spite of the conceptual pageants and epic displays: that Sufjan is fundamentally a sensualist. And a morbid one, at that. Death looms large, either as an oracle at the apex of a volcano or as a shadowy omen in the window at night. What are we to make of these emotional and romantic climaxes back-dropped by fuming volcanoes, alien space craft, and demonic deities dressed like Boba Fett.

The cosmic themes are only more augmented by the obvious sonic shift on this album, which is deliberately electronic, synthesized (and occasionally danceable!). Acoustic guitars and banjos have been replaced here by drum machines and analog synthesizers. Loops, samples, and digital effects gurgle and hum underneath every verse, chorus, and bridge. For those familiar with Sufjan's earlier work (namely, the electronic album Enjoy Your Rabbit), this foray into the digital pop world shouldn't be so startling. The difference here is that the electronic sound collage is transposed on a collection of songs, while the sounds themselves are given equal footing to the voice, washed as it is in a pedal board of effects. The album is also heavily arranged with brass, strings, woodwinds, and a lush choir of backing voices. These 'live' elements create vivacious juxtapositions against the montage of synthesized sounds, evoking their own kind of literal 'sonic theory' that is, the conflict and resolution between Real and Unreal, or Ordinary vs. Extraordinary. These themes are best illustrated in the album's namesake.

The Age of Adz refers to the Apocalyptic art of Royal Robertson (1930 -1997), a black Louisiana-based sign-maker (and self-proclaimed prophet) who suffered from schizophrenia, and whose work depicts the artist's vivid dreams and visions of space aliens, futuristic automobiles, eccentric monsters, and signs of the Last Judgment, all cloaked in a confusing psychobabble of biblical prophecy, numerology, Nordic mythology and comic book jargon. Portions of the album use Robertson's work as a springboard into a cosmic consciousness in which basic instincts are transposed on a tableau of extraordinary scenes of divine wrath, environmental catastrophe, and personal loss. In Robertsons imagination, guns, lasers, gargoyles, and warring battleships upend the sins of mankind with the pageantry of a Hollywood B-movie. (A selection of Robertson's work adds extraordinary color to the album art as well).

But Robertson was also a man of mundane circumstances (his primary media were poster board, magic marker, and glitter). Living alone in a trailer in near poverty, even his most fantastical work contains heart-wrenching references to hunger, fatigue, anxiety, food stamps, loneliness and the desire for intimacy, scripted with unabashedly affectionate grievances. In the same way, Sufjan sets his imagination on the splendor of high places (divine revelation, oracles, love, the cosmos, the Apocalypse) rending his heart in the mire of loneliness, self-doubt, or panic, while his body urges for the ordinary touch of a lover, a brother, or a friend.

Pre-order the Age of Adz by clicking on the link to the right.

30 August at 3:42pm

Sufjan delights with new EP - "All Delighted People"

It's about time Sufjan Stevens got back to writing songs, having spent the last few years filming and scoring his urban documentary The BBQ and transposing his earlier electronic concept album about the Chinese Zodiac, Enjoy Your Rabbit, for the string quartet version "Run Rabbit Run".Finally, with "All Delighted People" apparently an EP, despite being an hour long he returns to the song for the first time since 2006, and it's a relief, like a master chef getting back to the main course after time out as a pastry-chef.

The download-only album is built around two takes of the title-track, opening with an 11-minute version which features wistful strings and ponderous horns in uneasy alliance in front of a chilly choral curtain. Stevens has described it as "a dramatic homage to the apocalypse, existential ennui and Paul Simon's "Sound Of Silence", which just about covers it: line quotes from Simon's classic ("and the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they'd made", etc) share song-space with religious proclamation while the arrangement sweeps from quietly meditative to vertiginously dramatic, leaving one thoroughly ragged by the conclusion. The later 8-minute "classic rock" version opens Illinoise-style with banjo, before the choir and gently riffing horns add warmer textures, but it's still a far cry from any classic rock I've encountered, despite the fragmented guitar and synth with which it closes.

The impassioned whimsy of "Enchanting Ghost" brings to mind The Incredible String Band, as Stevens sketches a backdrop of guitar and banjo fingerpicking behind a lyric encouraging separation: "And if it pleases you to leave me, just go stopping you would stifle your enchanting ghost". The opposite desire underpins "From The Mouth Of Gabriel", on which Reichian pulsing reeds underscore prepared piano, choir and synthesiser, a strange thrumming commotion slipping slowly out of sync; and "The Owl & The Tanager" once more finds Stevens drawing on inscrutable personal events, related over reflective piano quadruplets that develop an incantatory power an art-song with roots in Schubert lieder as much as folk or pop.

The same could hardly be said of "Djohariah", which concludes the album with a "17-minute guitar jam for single mothers" ? specifically, Sufjan's sister Djohariah, whose name is chanted in a lowing murmur accompanied by mild horns and piano, alternating with bursts of jagged electric guitar noise in the manner of Neil Young's "Cowgirl In The Sand", until Stevens' lyric begins some 12 minutes in, a comforting affirmation that she's doing the right thing, that "the mother is the glorious victorious" and that "the man who left you for dead, he's the heart grabber back- stabber double-cheater wife beater you don't need that man in your life". It's a beautiful piece of work which seems to encompass all the angst and painful shame of the situation before blossoming into the most positive of resolutions, further confirmation that Stevens is one of the most important talents working in music today.

To stream or purchase the EP for only $5, click on the link to the right

30 August at 3:33pm

Sufjan Stevens Working With The National on New Album

"We've played on some of the tracks and been listening to some of the stuff as he's been working on it," Bryce Dessner of The National recently revealed in an interview with Exclaim!. He refused to give away too many details about the album out of respect for Stevens, but promised that it would sound unlike anything we've heard from the Illinoisemaker before. He said it would blow people's minds.

16 June at 8:01am

Balmorhea scores new feature film.

Dog Pound, a film Balmorhea worked on last year premiered at Tribeca Film Festival recently and was awarded "Best Narrative Film Maker." See the trailer of this film on the right.

28 May at 1:40pm

Gibson.com names Wes Montgomery as one of the top 20 Guitarists of all time

This thumb-picking master of the Gibson L-5CES from Indianapolis changed the sound of jazz guitar melody from bebop's single-note lines to elegant gliding octave and block chords that rang like gentle, breathy sighs even during his most ferocious playing. His influence continues to resonate in inheritors like George Benson and Pat Martino, but extended well beyond straight jazz to fusion explorers like John McLaughlin and Montgomery's trumpet-playing contemporary Miles Davis. See the link to the article on the right.

28 May at 1:12pm

Sufjan Stevens wins American Idol

MTV News Blog: 9:52 Sufjan Stevens song "Chicago" is playing on the soundtrack. My mind is BLOWN. Dear Idol, if you're going to have amazing taste in music for your TAPED pieces, why don't you have better song choices for the contestants to sing? Click on link to right to read whole article.

28 May at 11:22am

Sufjan Stevens Backs The National on Letterman

Last night, the Brooklyn rockers killed yet another late night appearance with their performance of the beautifully desperate “Afraid of Everyone” on Letterman. Sufjan Stevens, who supplied the track’s backing vocals on High Violet, came through to sing during the Letterman performance as well. Click on the right to check it out.

16 May at 8:15am

Hal Galper remembers his time with Cannonball Adderley

Pianist Hal Galper remembers the three years he spent playing with Cannonball Adderley. Hal's new Piano Trio recording is "E Pluribus Unum." Click on link to the right to hear the interview.

11 May at 10:42am

Dutch photojournalist Joel Weickgenant reviews Balmorhea's "Constellations"

Read this review of their latest album, as well as see some great pics from their show in Utrecht and see a video of one of their songs. Just click on the link to the right.

8 May at 3:26pm

New film by French director Thomas Balmes features Sufjan's song

Release Date: April 16, 2010 Genre: Documentary Director: Thomas Balmes Writer: Thomas Balmes Studio: Focus Features Plot: Everybody loves... BABIES. This visually stunning new movie simultaneously follows four babies around the world - from first breath to first steps. From Mongolia to Namibia to San Francisco to Tokyo, BABIES joyfully captures on film the earliest stages of the journey of humanity that are at once unique and universal to us all. To watch the official trailer click on the link to the right.

8 May at 9:02am

Our writer Ben Grace wins national song competition

Ben Grace is feeling pretty excited right now after winning the Songs That Unite song competition.“I feel honoured and excited and the news certainly added to our Easter fest!” he says.His song Alpha and Omega, wowed the judging panel with its combination of music and lyrics. Click on our link on the right to see the full article, as well as hear the song.

4 May at 12:54pm

Sally Seltmann & Dan Kelly perform Sufjan's track on Rockwiz

Performing "Hey Guys, it's Christmas Time" on SBS's Rockwiz. See link on right hand side of our page. Great performance!

4 May at 12:14pm

CopyCare Pacific signs CeCe Winans catalogue

New signings this month include Cece Winans catalogue Little Pooky's Music

4 May at 11:22am

Sufjan Stevens scores new documentary

Indie singer songwriter Sufjan Stevens has collaborated with Castanets' Raymond Raposa to score the doco Beyond This Place. Click on our link on the right to see the trailer.

4 May at 11:15am