“San Francisco,” a New Song From Denison Witmer

April 17th, 2020 , by

Denison Witmer’s new album, American Foursquare, is out on May 8th. Today though, Denison has released another song from that project, “San Francisco.”

“San Francisco” finds Denison dreaming about an escape to the Redwood Forest in Northern California. Says Denison: “The Redwoods are my water level. The scale and timelessness of them helps me better understand my own life’s scale and timeline. I feel simultaneously young and old, naive and full of understanding.”

You can hear the song above, or on your favorite platform here. And if you pre-order at Bandcamp here, you’ll receive an exclusive version of “River of Music.”

Here are the lyrics:

Maybe I should book a flight to San Francisco
Rent a car and drive up through the redwood trees
Where they stand in silence high above my sorrow
There’s a message there for you and one for me

I see the child in myself as I get older
Still feeling every age that I have ever been
And I have joy when the light breaks through the shoulders
Of the Pacific giants swaying in the wind
I have a lifetime swaying in my mind again

I think I’m grieving the death of part of me
I think I’m leaving, won’t you come with me
I think I’m grieving the death of part of me
I think I’m leaving, won’t you come with me

It’s everything I’ve got
It’s not everything I need
It’s ok
I made my bed here, baby
This is where I stay

It’s everything I know
It’s not all that I believe
It’s ok
I made my bed here, baby
This is where I lay

New Music from Denison Witmer: “Catalina Love”

April 2nd, 2020 , by

Denison Witmer has released “Catalina Love” which you can hear on digital streaming platforms anywhere, or watch the video above. The album, American Foursquare, is out digitally on May 8th.

We all lose someone or something sometime, and this is why this new song is so important right now. In singing to very specific people about a very specific loss—close friends about the death of their 4-month-old baby—Denison is really singing to and for us all.

“Catalina Love is about coming to terms with things that turn out differently than we had planned,” says Denison. “When I am at a loss for words, I usually retreat into a mental space where I have more questions than answers. It’s a type of grief that leaves me wondering things like, ‘Am I the only one who feels this way? Where do I go from here?’”

This tender, careful, yet resilient song reminds us that we all have a love that is lost to us, we are all trying to let go but we just can’t. Every deep loss both compresses and lengthens the passage of time, God’s hand swings low far too often, and at some point, all of us will have walk up to the cliff of our own Catalina Island to give up our tears and let the ashes fall into the waves below.

Here are the lyrics for the song:

I don’t have another choice
I’m living in the void
When I think about you lately
My head fills up with noise

You left here two months ago
I saw the hand of God swing low
And the garden I had planted
Was covered in the snow

How am I going to let you know that I need your love?
How am I going to let you go Catalina Love?

Everything around went black
I sat up in the flash
Was it just me who heard it?
Is it just me who knows?

There are things I’ll never say
It will always be that way
Forever in your memory
Forever on your face

How am I going to let you know that I need your love?
How am I going to let you go Catalina Love?

I have a special place
A place that’s just my own
My namesake’s ash and bones
Are buried in the waves

Sufjan & Lowell’s Aporia Out Now

March 23rd, 2020 , by

Check your local record store today for physical copies

Read the Rest...

“Climb That Mountain,” single from Sufjan and Lowell’s Aporia available now

March 11th, 2020 , by

Sufjan Stevens’s and Lowell Brams’s instrumental new age album, Aporia, is available at record stores and your favorite digital platform on March 27, 2020. 

Today we’re proud to introduce another single: “Climb That Mountain.”

You can also watch the promo video and hear the first single, “The Unlimited,” here, or watch the video for “The Runaround” here.

Aporia is out March 27th. You can pre-order the limited edition yellow LP, yellow cassette, or CD here.

Now Available: “The Runaround,” the newest single from Sufjan and Lowell’s Aporia

February 19th, 2020 , by

Two weeks ago we announced Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams’ instrumental new age album, Aporia, set for release here on AKR on March 27, 2020. You can watch the promo video and hear the first single, “The Unlimited,” here.

Today we’re releasing “The Runaround,” the second single, along with a video set to the track. 

The video, shot and edited by ABUTTA492, features Bike Life bikers on the streets of Harlem and NYC, Atlanta, and Miami. You can watch more of ABUTTA492’s Bike Life videos on his Youtube channel or his Instagram. You can also learn more about Miami’s Bike Life movement by watching the short documentary “Bikes Up Guns Down,” available here.

Watch and listen to “The Runaround” here. 

Aporia is out March 27th. You can pre-order the limited edition yellow LP, yellow cassette, or CD here.

Announcing Aporia, from Sufjan and Lowell

February 5th, 2020 , by

Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams have made an instrumental new age album called Aporia, which will be released on AKR March 27, 2020. Read more here.

Listen to the first single here. Pre-order the limited edition yellow LP, yellow cassette, or CD here.

Sufjan & Lowell have curated a New Age listening playlist in celebration of the release here. Follow the playlist as we’ll be adding more tracks as we get closer to release date.

Decalogue Score Available for Purchase

December 11th, 2019 , by

Last month we released The Decalogue, composed by Sufjan Stevens and performed and recorded by Timo Andres. 

The deluxe limited edition, which you can purchase here, includes a 40-page piano score. 

But if you don’t have a record player but want to play the etudes at home, you’re still in luck; the score is available for purchase separately, as a 40-page physical book, or as a digital, downloadable PDF. You can purchase it here for $15 for the physical and $5 for the PDF. 

“Save Me From Myself,” a New Song from Denison

December 6th, 2019 , by

We’ve released one song from Denison Witmer’s American Foursquare project, “River of Music,” and more recently a beautiful rendition of “For The Beauty of the Earth.”

Today we’re happy to release another new song from the American Foursquare project, entitled “Save Me From Myself.”

Here’s Denison on the themes of “Save Me From Myself:”

Family life is busy. I don’t have the same amount of time for self reflection that I once had. While I do miss that alone time, being part of a family has given me a different kind of clarity. My children teach me that my own needs are very simple. They just want to be loved. They just want to be heard. They just want to feel safe. I am reminded of the lyrics in one of my favorite songs, The Prayer Of Saint Francis—“It is In giving of ourselves that we receive.” I think family life is much the same way.

This song is the first track Denison recorded with Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) back in February 2017 (!!!). The result, this song, is what led Denison and Thomas to keep tinkering and recording together. “I remember being really nervous,” says Denison, “because I wasn’t sure if I was actually making a new album or if we were just experimenting. When he added the piano part the song came to life and I somehow knew innately that, after my long hiatus from music, I was ready to start a new record.”

You can listen to the song here, or via your favorite streaming platform here.

New Holiday Music from Denison Witmer

November 22nd, 2019 , by

A couple of weeks ago we released “River of Music,” a brand new song by Denison Witmer from his American Foursquare project (which you can hear here).

Today, Denison has released some more new music. This time it’s “For the Beauty of the Earth,” a holiday hymn written by 19th century Tractarian, scholar, and writer Folliott Pierpoint.

Here’s Denison on the song:

“‘For the Beauty Of The Earth’ is my favorite song of thankfulness. It is a reminder that peace and beauty can be simple, located in the world around us and the people we love. I recorded this song live with my friend Thomas Bartlett. He played piano while I sang. We performed it twice and picked our favorite take. I wanted it to sound the way I sing it to my children at night.”

We hope you enjoy the song over the holidays.

(And there’s more new music coming so be sure to follow Denison Spotify or Instagram.)

Out Now from Half-handed Cloud: Gathered Out Of Thin Air

November 15th, 2019 , by

Half-handed Cloud’s Gathered Out Of Thin Air is the culmination of nearly a decade of songwriting, recording, and collecting. We’ve been slowly trickling out batches of songs from this compilation, but at long last you can hear it in its glory on 2xLP or via your favorite digital platform.

The compilation includes songs like “Naaman,” which is a cover of an unreleased Sufjan Stevens song, sent to John Ringhofer (Half-handed Cloud) back in early 2001, “Nativity Costume (2000 Year’s Eve),” a holiday song of John’s that found its way into a cover song for the end credits of the video game Hypnospace Outlaw, “California” a cover of a song by Norwegian band I Was A King, a newly-mastered version of “Train Yourselves In Godliness,” from 2015’s self-released digital-only Foiled EP N°1, “Stumbled On A Holiness,” which is from Half-handed Cloud’s previously-unreleased Wearing The Path EP, “Here We Go Transformation,” which was previously only released with a zine, and over 50 other singles, non-album EPs, Christmas songs, and rarities from 2010-2019 – gathered into one place just for you.

Listen here, or order the 2xLP here or with your local record store. If you order through Asthmatic Kitty Records, we’ll include a limited edition set of four bookmarks, designed by John Ringhofer (Half-handed Cloud), while supplies last.

« Previous Page — Next Page »