Sold Date: December 24, 2023
Start Date: December 17, 2023
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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 and 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.

Daniel Anum Jasper, a pioneer of Ghanian movie poster painting, was commissioned to paint a series of new works for A Beginner’s Mind. His paintings are a graphic simulacrum for the same sense of wonder, wordplay, and intrigue that shape A Beginner’s Mind. By transforming old films into vital new songs, Stevens and De Augustine ask us to consider ourselves from a previously unconsidered vantage point—a new way of seeing and hearing—an exercise that’s as necessary and relevant now as it’s ever been.

No.TitleWriter(s)Film inspirationLength

1."Reach Out" Wings of Desire3:43

2."Lady Macbeth in Chains" All About Eve3:42

3."Back to Oz" Return to Oz4:12

4."The Pillar of Souls" Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth3:10

5."You Give Death a Bad Name" Night of the Living Dead4:07

6."Beginner's Mind"De AugustinePoint Break2:15

7."Olympus" Clash of the Titans3:07

8."Murder and Crime" Mad Max3:30

9."(This Is) The Thing"StevensThe Thing2:48

10."It's Your Own Body and Mind"StevensShe's Gotta Have It2:27

11."Lost in the World"De AugustineThe Last Wave3:10

12."Fictional California" Bring It On Again2:50

13."Cimmerian Shade" The Silence of the Lambs4:19

14."Lacrimae"De AugustineLacrimae Rerum2:07