He is as misunderstood as adulated: the American Sufjan Stevens returns with his 9th album, an exclusively instrumental disc, for patients (but time, we don't have that?), Made of layers of superimposed sounds without really any red thread . A very different tone from Mystery Of Love , its flagship title for which it was named to the Oscar for the best soundtrack, that of the film Call Me By Your Name .
The "Fifty States Project": an album on each American state
Sufjan Stevens is not just a folk genius: his albums are also real performances. For example, he made a symphony from the ambient noise of a freeway plot, the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.
At the beginning of his career, many believed in another dantesque project: the "Fifty States Project", to make an album on each American state. In 2003, he released the album Michigan . In music, he tells of this American state where he was born and spent his childhood…
Two years later, he released Illinois , his fifth album ... State in which he spent several weeks to better understand it. Officially, Sufjan Stevens has not made other albums of this type but the most purist believe something else: his disc Carrie and Lowell , hailed by the critics, would be in reference to Oregon. He cites for example Spencer's Butte in All Of Me Wants All Of You , or talks about the Meadowlark, bird mascot of the American state.
Aporia , his new album, was made with his stepfather Lowell Brams, also a musician, with whom he is very close. All profits will be donated to associations fighting the Covid-19.