Sufjan Stevens and Lowell Brams have combined to release “Aporia” on the co-founded label Asthmatic Kitty. Brams has announced his retirement, making this a de facto going away present to the label. The recording took place over several years and was a result of hundreds of hours of recordings sifted through by both for highlights. It’s also the relationship of a longtime relationship as the two have known each other since the early 1980s.
Sufjan Stevens, a longtime collaborative and conceptual artists has recently had many interesting and rewarding projects. He contributed a score for New York City Ballet Resident Choreographer Justin Peck’s The Decalogue as well as released a critically acclaimed collaborative album Planetarium which gets its inspiration from the Solar System. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his song “Mystery of Love” from “Call Me By Your Name” directed by Luca Guadagnino. Lowell Brams has been making electronic music since 1986, which explains partially why the production and synth work is so fantastic on this album.
The range of styles and song structures make this electronic music a particularly interesting output. The album opens on “Ousia” and “What It Takes” which both open with more tame, world-influenced instrumentals and move into a synth oasis. On “Agathon” and “Afterworld Alliance”, they begin with a more somber tone and move into a much more grand, goth-like production. “Palinodes” and “For Raymond Scott” sound like a lot of fun from the production and synthesizer standpoint. The ending begins with a perfectly chosen salvo of tracks to continue the idea and make an exciting statement. “The Runaround” one of the singles and the first song with a true vocal part, is a great example of how bits of recordings over time can make one cohesive idea. Finally, they wrap up the album with three Krautrock inspired songs to give it a soft landing.
Overall, it was an excellent example of electronic production by two masters at the craft. A lot of instrumentally based albums move all as one piece, but “Aporia” was a combination of tracks each made as an individual piece creating a distinct musical picture. Listen with headphones.
