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Artist News Releases
Sufjan Stevens and stepfather Lowell Brams announce new album
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 6 February 2020
Lowell Brams has announced plans to release a new collaborative album with his stepson, Sufjan Stevens. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Or maybe they both have equal billing and you should stop playing this game of one-upmanship you insist upon. Anyway, they’ve made an album together, it’s called ‘Aporia’, and it’s out next month.
The record was crafted over a number of years at Stevens’ New York home, with the pair improvising hours of music before pulling out the best bits for the final record. “You know how it is with jamming”, says Stevens. “90% of it is absolutely horrible, but if you’re just lucky enough, 10% is magic. I just kept pulling out these little magical moments”.
This is not the first time the two musicians have worked together – they having recorded instrumental album ‘Music For Insomnia’ in 2008. They also co-founded the Asthmatic Kitty record label in 1999.
And the titular Lowell in Stevens’ 2015 concept album ‘Lowell & Carrie’? Well, that’s Brams too. I guess they didn’t strictly work together on that one, but it was all based on Brams’ marriage to Stevens’ late mother, so it would be hard to argue that he didn’t have any influence on it. I don’t know why you’re so argumentative today, will you just let me get on with it?
Brams and Stevens are not the only musicians on ‘Aporia’. Helping them to bring all their collaborations together as a finished project – Brams’ announcement that he was planning to retire from Asthmatic Kitty prompting the decision to finally do so – were The Shins’ Yuuki Matthews, Doveman’s Thomas Bartlett, DM Stith, Dots Will Echo’s Nick Berry, Half-handed Cloud’s John Ringhofer, drummer James McAlister, keyboardist and trombonist Steve Moore, and vocalist Cat Martino.
‘Aporia’ is out on 27 Mar, and you can hear the first track from it, ‘The Unlimited’, here:
