On November 1, 2 and 3rd Sufjan will be pairing orchestrated selections of both new and old material with the 25th Next Wave Festival commission/world premiere of The BQE-a symphonic and cinematic exploration of one of New York’s least celebrated monuments: the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.

Robert Moses‘ controversial 11.7-mile roadway tears through neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens with the brute force of modern urban planning, and in Stevens’ hands becomes an evocation of the intersection of intimate experience and the American Dream. Merging a virtual road trip shot on film with a live band and orchestral ensemble, The BQE discovers abstract patterns and stories in the snaking traffic, potholed pavement, billboards, badly marked exits, and beautiful city views, revealing what happens when Manifest Destiny converges with urban blight.

There’s been a flurry of Sufjan-related content on the World Wide Web, not the least of which is the above video, but luckily you don’t have to go digging for it. We round it all up here, free of charge. Click on "more" to read.

If you neglected to attend the recent Music Now Festival in Cincinnati, you missed a series of amazing shows. Luckily, the king of online music video, La Blogothèque, did nothing of the sort, and while at the festival managed to coax a few of the participants into recording some video. Sufjan recorded two of them, one of which is edited together with the other musicians from Music Now, and the other performed on a blustery rooftop while covering the Innocence Mission (oh, they have a new album!).  Shara Worden, of My Brightest Diamond, elicits an especially clandestine sound from staircase and basement in her video. All three, and others just as beautiful, are available on La Blogothèque’s page. And for the next week or so, you can download them in high definition from that same page.

Sufjan has also recorded a new song for a 20-track strong compilation included with an upcoming issue of The Believer. You’d do well to pick up the issue (or even subscribe – it’s a dense but fascinating magazine), but if you’re far from a bookstore you can listen to the MP3 exclusively on Stereogum.

Finally, Sufjan recorded the first track on the recently released A Tribute to Joni Mitchell. He’s posted a sidebar entry on the process of capturing the spirit of Joni Mitchell’s "Free Man in Paris," which you can read here.