Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine will release a collaborative album, ‘A Beginner’s Mind’, on 24th September 2021 on Asthmatic Kitty Records.
Two songs from the album, ‘Reach Out’ and ‘Olympus’ have been released today along with a video for ‘Reach Out’, which was shot earlier this year by Sufjan and Angelo on VHS-C cameras from their respective coasts, New York and California, starring their beloved dogs Joku (a Jindo) and Charlie (a Havanese) and edited by Jess Calleiro.
‘A Beginner’s Mind’ was created when the label mates went to a friend’s cabin in upstate New York for a month-long songwriting sabbatical. Watching a movie to unwind after each day’s work, they soon found their songs reflecting the films and began investigating this connection in earnest.The resulting album is 14 songs (loosely) based on (mostly) popular films – highbrow, lowbrow and everything in between.
They wrote in tandem – one person writing a verse, the other a chorus, churning out chord progressions and lyrics willy-nilly, often finishing each other’s sentences in the process.
The album’s artwork comes courtesy of Ghanaian artist Daniel Anum Jasper. In Ghana during the late ’80s, a novel “mobile cinema” culture emerged when enterprising film fans screened Hollywood blockbusters in the backs of pick-up trucks using portable generators. To advertise the movies, artists painted alternate posters inspired only by the scant information they had about each film.
The track listing is for ‘A Beginner’s Mind’ is:
1. Reach Out 3:43
2. Lady Macbeth In Chains 3:42
3. Back To Oz 4:25
4. The Pillar Of Souls 4:04
5. You Give Death A Bad Name 5:11
6. Beginner’s Mind 2:36
7. Olympus 3:07
8. Murder And Crime 3:43
9. (This Is) The Thing 3:13
10. It’s Your Own Body And Mind 2:27
11. Lost In The World 3:20
12. Fictional California 3:03
13. Cimmerian Shade 5:01
14. Lacrimae 2:05
