JohnMatrix Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 (edited) It’s been said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture (impossible and absurd). But what about singing about movies? Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine have paired up for a collaborative project that does just that. A Beginner’s Mind is their debut album that contains 14 songs (loosely) based on (mostly) popular films. The source material is highbrow, lowbrow, and everything in between. The music is folksy, sweet, sincere and harmonically effervescent—Simon & Garfunkel with New Age flourishes. This album runs the gamut and has fun with it, even while its songwriters remain fully rooted in the melancholy folk idioms they are known for. Stevens and De Augustine wrote everything with a deliberate sense of shoshin—the Zen Buddhist concept for which the record is named and an idea that empowered the pair to look for and write about unlikely inspiration without preconceived notions of what a film had to say. The underlying objective was empathy and openness, absent of judgment: to observe what is pure and good—or seemingly dark and villainous—with the eyes of a child. Beginner's Mind Ocean Blue https://store.asthmatickitty.com/collections/a-beginners-mind-merch/products/a-beginners-mind?variant=39400421457991 Black https://store.asthmatickitty.com/collections/a-beginners-mind-merch/products/a-beginners-mind?variant=39400421425223 Reach Out/Olympus 7 inch https://store.asthmatickitty.com/collections/a-beginners-mind-merch/products/sufjan-stevens-angelo-de-augustine-reach-out-olympus Movie Club Completist Pack (Beginner's Mind Blue press, Reach Out/Olympus 7 inch, 2 more TBA 7 inches and a Movie Club Membership Card..whatever that is) https://store.asthmatickitty.com/collections/a-beginners-mind-merch/products/a-beginners-mind-movie-club-completist-pack Edited July 7, 2021 by JohnMatrix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeCeCe Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 (edited) Orange https://sufjanstevens.ochre.store/format/768087-a-beginners-mind Indies Green https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/sufjan-stevens-and-angelo-de-augustine/a-beginner-s-mind/lp-plus Rough Trade Exclusive Yellow https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/sufjan-stevens-and-angelo-de-augustine/a-beginner-s-mind/lp-plus-2 Edited July 7, 2021 by craigeduk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeartSwells Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 EU indies is transparent green, US indies is a gold transparent. CeCeCe 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChardeeMacDennis Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 In for the the movie club pack! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmpatrick Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 (edited) It sounds like a Simon & Garfunkel song, but without a hook. Edited July 7, 2021 by jmpatrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoublesGuy Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 The singles are really good and remind me of Illinois and Michigan a bit. Going to wait and see how the pressings turn out rather than pre-ordering though, because The Ascension is one of the worst pressings I own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluethumb Posted July 7, 2021 Share Posted July 7, 2021 (edited) Snagged one of each (LP + 7") REAL quick! Beside just being a shameless Sufjan fanboi, I love when these two team up and have thoroughly enjoyed everything they've put out together so far. Edited July 7, 2021 by bluethumb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fondfarewell Posted July 8, 2021 Share Posted July 8, 2021 Movie Club Completist Pack sold out at AKR but still available on Bandcamp: https://sufjanstevens.bandcamp.com/album/a-beginners-mind Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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