The Asthmatic Kitty Records site announced today (via The Music Slut, HT Matt Morrell) that Sufjan Stevens is releasing his Brooklyn-Queens Expressway project as a film, comic book, soundtrack, and stereoscopic image reel (those things you put in a View-Master) this fall. Apparently, Stevens recorded the music for The BQE immediately following its debut three-night run a while back, but shelved the project until now.
“The songwriter borrows from multiple theoretical sources to evoke how the vainglorious battle between the ‘Artist’ and the ‘Object of Inspiration’ ultimately leads to self-absorption, existential exhaustion, and morbid futility in the Finding The Right Metaphor,” reads a second description (written by Stevens?) on the AK site here.
Here’s The BQE soundtrack’s tracklist:
1. Prelude on the Esplanade (2:56)
2. Introductory Fanfare for the Hooper Heroes (1:07)
3. Movement I—In the Countenance of Kings (5:19)
4. Movement II—Sleeping Invader (4:34)
5. Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation (3:33)
6. Movement III—Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise (4:09)
7. Movement IV—Traffic Shock (3:24)
8. Movement V—Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns (3:45)
9. Interlude II—Subi Power Waltz (0:28)
10. Interlude III—Invisible Accidents (0:54)
11. Movement VI—Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges (3:17)
12. Movement VII (Finale)—The Emperor of Centrifuge (3:51)
13. Postlude—Critical Mass (2:59)
For a trailer for The BQE click here and for the more verbose project description click here.