Sufjan’s ‘Javelin’ 2023 Best-Of Round-Up
January 24th, 2024 , by Asthmatic Kitty
AKR Holiday Sale: Select CDs and vinyl from Sufjan and other AKR artists 20% off
November 20th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
The annual AKR Holiday Sale is here again. This year, enjoy a 20% discount on select CDs and vinyl from artists including Sufjan Stevens, Angelo De Augustine, Denison Witmer, and others. Among many other highlights, this sale includes Sufjan’s The Ascension 2xLP, the Ocean Blue variant of A Beginner’s Mind by Sufjan & Angelo, the Esther LP by The Welcome Wagon, and the Gathered of Out Thin Air 2xLP from Half-handed Cloud.
No coupon code is needed as discounts are already applied.
Each order includes an official Asthmatic Kitty logo sticker.
View everything on sale here.
Here’s just a few of the items on sale:
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Angelo De Augustine Shares Live Double Single: LIVE DTLA
November 8th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
In June, Angelo De Augustine released his fourth solo studio album, Toil and Trouble. Today he’s releasing new live versions of two songs from Toil and Trouble: “Another Universe” and “The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill,” available for listening here. Alongside the new versions are videos directed by Jessica Calleiro, filmed on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles and set to a backdrop of a setting sun over an LA skyline. Angelo is accompanied on the tracks and videos by musicians Sam Gendel and Gabe Noel.
You can purchase a Cauldron Fire colored vinyl LP of Toil and Trouble here, and a Toil and Trouble t-shirt designed by Eric Timothy Carlson here.
Sufjan’s new album, Javelin, is now available
October 6th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Javelin, Sufjan’s tenth solo studio album, is available now for listening on streaming platforms, for purchase on CD and LP at our store here, or at your local record store. All CDs and LPs come with a 48-page book of art and essays by Sufjan. Below is a list of all the colors of Javelin vinyl you can purchase and where to buy them. We have some of our AKR exclusive Seaweed Ocean Blast LP available at the AKR Store.
Also available for purchase at the AKR Store is a Javelin t-shirt and a sweatshirt, both manufactured in Detroit by Soft Goods and screen printed in Atlanta by Danger Press, an enviro-tote on 15oz natural cotton, and a limited edition backpack designed by Charleston-based J-Stark.
Here are the track listing and vinyl splits for Javelin:
SIDE A
1. “Goodbye Evergreen” 3:35
2. “A Running Start” 4:21
3. “Will Anybody Ever Love Me?” 4:09
4. “Everything That Rises” 4:59
5. “Genuflecting Ghost” 3:32
SIDE B
6. “My Red Little Fox” 3:42
7. “So You Are Tired” 4:49
8. “Javelin (To Have and to Hold)” 1:52
9. “Shit Talk” 8:31
10. “There’s a World” 2:29
Total length: 41:59
 |  |
 |  |
Javelin vinyl variants:
 AKR Seaweed Ocean Blast Buy it at AKR Store |  Indie worldwide exclusive LemonadeBuy it at your local record store (or online) |
 Rough Trade Green SmokeBuy it at Rough Trade |  Magnolia Record of the Month Orange CreamBuy it at Magnolia |
 Black vinyl |  Urban Outfitters Solid GreenBuy it at Urban Outfitters |
 Spotify Fans First Pop Bottle Clear(Out of stock) |
“A Running Start” from Sufjan’s Javelin available now, album on Friday
October 3rd, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
This Friday, October 6th, Sufjan releases his new album, Javelin. Today, we present the final pre-release single, “A Running Start,” which Sufjan describes as “a song about the exhilarating power of first loves and first kisses, and finding safety and serenity in the sublime beauty of nature.”
Hear the song or watch the lyric video here.
All physical copies of Javelin will include a 48-page book of art and essays created by Sufjan, and we’re providing a free digital version of the book early. You can view that here.
Also: you don’t have to wait until Friday to hear the full record! Several record stores and shops are holding listening events this evening (see below for details). They’ll have free Javelin goodies, and you’ll be able to purchase and walk away with your own copy of Javelin. You can also pre-order or pre-save the album and Javelin merch from the AKR store here, including an AKR Sea Foam vinyl LP.
October 3, 2023
Philadelphia, US, Repo Records
Vancouver, Canada, Neptoon Records
Charleston, US, J. Stark w/ records sold by The Record Stop
Chattanooga, US, Yellow Racket Records
Seattle, US, Easy Street Records
Angelo releases new album, Toil and Trouble
June 30th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Today, Angelo shares Toil and Trouble, his first solo effort since 2019’s breakthrough third album, the Thomas Bartlett-produced Tomb, and his follow-up to 2021’s critically acclaimed collaboration with Sufjan, A Beginner’s Mind.
Mojo has already reviewed the new album, saying that Angelo “ups his game . . . Augustine’s fourth is celestially good.” The album also received an 8/10 from Uncut, and NPR’s Bob Boilen said that “Another Universe,” the first track released from the album, was a “breathtaking song.”
Listen to the full album on streaming platforms here.
Check with your local record store to pick up an indie gold exclusive color, or you can buy a cauldron-fire colored vinyl, and a bundle including a Toil and Trouble themed T-shirt, Angelo’s 2019 Tomb on vinyl that includes a randomized set of three Toil and Trouble themed collector cards here (sample of the cards below).
New single and video from Angelo De Augustine: “Toil and Trouble”
June 13th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Today Angelo De Augustine released “Toil and Trouble,” the third single from his upcoming new album, Toil and Trouble. Click here to listen now.
On the single, Angelo says “As we all know, we are living in a world within another. A place of specific curation and design where the mind is the chief architect in command. I often wonder who the mind is working for? Who is behind the curtain pulling the strings and transmitting the messages?”
Accompanying the song is a stop-motion animated video by Clara Murray that incorporates Daniel’s cauldron. “’Toil and Trouble’ takes place in a dusty room alight with magic, tucked away but teeming with magic. Flying pop-up books and a singing cauldron give birth to mystical creatures, tapped into a sorcery seemingly both wicked and holy,” says Clara. You can hear the song and watch the video here.
Check with your local record store to pre-order an indie gold exclusive color, or you can buy a cauldron-fire colored vinyl, and a bundle including a Toil and Trouble themed T-shirt, Angelo’s 2019 Tomb on vinyl. Both the bundle and LP include a randomized set of three Toil and Trouble themed collector cards. The bundle is available here.
Special 20th anniversary vinyl editions of Sufjan’s Michigan album out now: second pressing arriving in fall
June 9th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
AKR has partnered with Third Man Pressing in Detroit to release three special editions.
Read the Rest...“The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill:” new single and video from Angelo De Augustine
May 24th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Today Angelo De Augustine released “The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill,” the second single from his upcoming new album, Toil and Trouble. The song is based on the Betty and Barney Hill incident, a UFO sighting in New Hampshire that occurred in 1961 in which the Hills, with their dog, Delsey, claimed to have been abducted by extraterrestrials.
Accompanying the song is a stop-animated video by Clara Murray.
You can hear the song and watch the video here. Check with your local record store to pre-order an indie gold exclusive color, or you can buy a cauldron-fire colored vinyl, and a bundle including a Toil and Trouble themed T-shirt, Angelo’s 2019 Tomb on vinyl. Both the bundle and LP include a randomized set of three Toil and Trouble themed collector cards. The bundle is available here.
In reference to “The Ballad of Betty and Barney Hill,” Angelo says that “while making the album I endured an experience so horrendous, torturous, and inexplicable that words fail me and explanation seems impossible. Within this period, I felt a close connection to Betty and Barney Hill and their story. I even started to believe that perhaps I had been abducted by some kind intergalactic being as they claimed occurred to them fifty-four years ago. When we experience something that doesn’t make logical sense, the mind looks to conjure any explanation no matter how outlandish it appears. We appear to crave understanding. Perhaps it makes us feel safe. The looming presence of the unknown is daunting and sometimes frightening. However, there is much we do not yet understand, some of which we will never comprehend.”
Clara Murray, who animated the video, talked about the abduction itself, “As with any alien abduction story, the case of Betty and Barney Hill left me unsettled, curious, doubtful. I wanted to capture that faltering feeling through repetitive, abstract events—as if the car is moving through time and space until time and space itself degrades around them—the characters, stuck in a loop, ultimately ending up in the same place they began. The setting is eerie, shifting, dreamlike and yet the invasion is corporeal—a haunting within flesh—as described by Barney Hill, ‘Oh those eyes. They’re there in my brain.’”
Reflections, composed by Sufjan, performed by Timo Andres and Conor Hanick out now
May 19th, 2023 , by Asthmatic Kitty
Today we are proud to release Reflections, the studio recording of Sufjan’s’ score for the ballet of the same name by choreographer Justin Peck, performed by pianists Conor Hanick and Timo Andres. To celebrate this release, we commissioned long-time Sufjan collaborator Stephen Halker to create a series of audio visualizations that animate the artwork from the album by Jessica Slaven, timed to the music.
Watch the visuals here, and listen to the record here. Read more about Reflections here.
Talking about the visualizations, Stephen said, “The motion design was dictated by the forms of Slaven’s artwork and the sonic characteristics of each piece. The visuals and compositions are so dynamic that the motion design was just an act of introducing the two forms to each other and watching them interact and mirror themselves.”
Timo and Conor, who performed the pieces, have also commented on the motion present on Reflections. Says Timo: “The music has an innate theatricality, drama, and variety that seems to suggest movement—not in a toe-tapping, groove-oriented way, but instead something both grander and quirkier. It was a pleasure to work with Sufjan to find the right interpretive balance of showmanship and intimacy in this music, and I was lucky to be joined in the process by the great Conor Hanick, whose playing I’ve known and admired for years.”
Hanick agreed: “Reflections – for all its kaleidoscopic virtuosity and stylistic variety – is a piece about movement. You can practically see its shapes and vectors form in real-time, gliding, tumbling, floating. Even in a body of work defined by boldness and contrast, Sufjan’s music in Reflections feels daring.”
Orders for the album on aquamarine-colored 45RPM LP, CD, are available now wherever you buy records, or via AKR here and on Bandcamp. The AKR Store and Bandcamp also include a bundle for sale that includes the expanded edition of The Decalogue with a photo-booklet.