Asthmatic Kitty Records

Sufjan Stevens

Sufjan Stevens is a singer, songwriter and composer currently living in New York. His preoccupation with epic concepts has motivated two state records (Michigan and Illinois), a collection of sacred and biblical songs (Seven Swans), an electronic album for the animals of the Chinese zodiac (Enjoy Your Rabbit), a full length partly inspired by the outsider artist Royal Robertson (The Age of Adz), a masterwork memorializing and investigating his relationship with his late mother (Carrie & Lowell), and two Christmas box sets (Songs for Christmas, vol. 1-5 and Silver & Gold, vol. 6-10).

BAM has commissioned two works from Stevens, a programmatic tone poem for the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (The BQE) and an instrumental accompaniment to slow-motion rodeo footage (Round-Up), and he has collaborated extensively with the New York City Ballet choreographer Justin Peck (Year of the Rabbit, Everywhere We Go, Countenance of Kings, Principia, The Decalogue and Reflections). Stevens’ Planetarium, a collaborative album with Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner and James McAlister imbued with themes of the cosmos, was released in 2017 to widespread critical praise. Stevens also contributed three much-lauded songs to Luca Guadagnino’s critically acclaimed film Call Me By Your Name, including the Oscar and Grammy nominated song, “Mystery of Love.”

In 2020 he shared Aporia, a collaborative new age album made with his stepfather Lowell Brams, and his eighth studio album The Ascension, a reflection on the state of humanity in freefall and a call for total transformation of consciousness. In early 2021 he released Convocations, a five-volume, two and a half hour requiem mass for present times, and then A Beginner’s Mind, a collaboration with singer-songwriter Angelo De Augustine featuring songs inspired in part by popular films.

In 2023, Reflections was released, a duo piano studio recording of Stevens’ composition for a ballet choreographed by Justin Peck, and performed by renowned pianists Timo Andres and Conor Hannick. In the summer of 2023, Illinois debuted as a dance performance piece. It was presented at the Fisher Center at Bard and was written by Justin Peck and Jackie Sibblies Drury, and directed and choreographed by Justin Peck with music & lyrics by Sufjan Stevens,

In October 2023, Stevens tenth solo studio project, Javelin, will be released. Javelin pairs musical sweep with emotional breadth in a way only Stevens can, weaving an entire lifetime of feeling into 42-minutes.