SUFJAN STEVENS Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Sufjan Stevens is nothing short of an enigma. Capable of shapeshifting in almost unfathomable ways, he's the sort of artist that can release a spellbinding and technically astounding collection of piano duets, written to score a ballet, but give tracks names like 'And I Shall Come To You Like A Stormtrooper In Drag Serving Imperial Realness'. High brow while totally accessible, his back catalogue to date is one for which you'd struggle to find anyone who doesn't appreciate, once they've taken the time to listen. Here we are then, mere months after the aforementioned song and its parent album landed, getting to grips with another very different beast. Javelin certainly shares in the beauty that ran through its predecessor - Reflections - but whereas the last LP was relatively minimalist, here things are often the opposite. Big, rousing, 1960s-70s style pop numbers, soulful journeyman acoustic with backing chorus, theatrical soft rock and plenty more besides.

Review: The great Sufjan Stevens has linked with Timo Andres and Conor Hanick for this piano album, Reflections. He says it is about "energy, light and duality" and comes in the wake of several scores from Stevens, who says that after writing music for ballets he is always thinking about "bodies moving through space." First commissioned and performed by the Houston Ballet in 2019, this record was made for two pianos and eleven dancers and its seven movements are all presented here complete with hints of Debussy, Stravinsky and Philip Glass.

Review: The blissful, heart wrenching, emotionally captivating Sufjan Stevens teams up with one of California's finest lo-fi indie artists, and a chap who has warmed up for him on a number of occasions; Angelo De Augustine. No doubt you can already picture in the mind's ear what this collaboration will sound like, and you'd be right. But it's far more difficult to figure out where they're coming from with this release.

Allow us to divulge, then. Beginner's Mind is a record at once inspired by some excellent movies, and then also some not-so-excellent ones. Each track on here owes something to the world's foremost visual culture (sorry, gamers), from 'Reach Out' referencing Wings of Desire to 'Lady Macbeth in Chains' nodding to All About Eve. In every case the link is nuanced, rather than direct, but this is only testament to the staggering songwriting at play.

Review: You can trust Music On Vinyl to put out the very best soundtracks, from the least likely sources. That Blade Runner soundtrack reissue a few years back was an absolute treat for us, to cite an example, but this edition of the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack is even more leftfield. After all, it's no surprise because the film had an insanely on-point score that never made it onto vinyl format; songs from the likes of John Adams, Giorgio Moroder and Franco Battiato are a wonderful thing to own on wax, within the concept of this remarkable movie, alongside other great tunes from coveted producers like Japan's Ryuichi Sakamoto. All in all, a fine catch.

Review: For many young film lovers today, Call Me By Your Name might have just been their first ever experience of homosexuality represented on film. It also put heartthrob Timothee Chalamet on the map, so it's not a film without its dues owed to it. Few still know of the star-studded cast of soundtrack pieces cobbled together for the film, in some cases commissioned, in others licensed from prior recordings. Notably, original compositions from the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Ryuichi Sakamoto make up the atmospheric bulk of it, largely centring on hauntingly beautiful piano pieces tempered by transitional voices and well-controlled rooms. Elsewhere come a smattering of romantic, synthy, Euro classics from FR David's 'Words' Franco Battatio's 'Radio Varsavia'.