Sufjan Stevens – “Revelation II”

Photo by Evans Richardson, colorization by Melissa Fuentes

Sufjan Stevens – “Revelation II”

Photo by Evans Richardson, colorization by Melissa Fuentes

Right now, Sufjan Stevens is in the midst of releasing his new five-part album Convocations, and he’s doing it one piece at a time. Last year, Stevens’ biological father died, and Convocations is music that Stevens made to help him grapple with the loss. The all-instrumental Convocations is organized around the idea of five stages of mourning, and Stevens has already released the parts of the album about the first two stages, Meditations and Lamentations. Today, Stevens has shared a track from Revelations, the next part of the album.

If the title Revelations implies some sort of epiphany, it also has heavier, more apocalyptic biblical connotations. There’s certainly no peace in “Revelation II,” the track that Stevens has just shared. Instead, “Revelation II” is built drones and oscillations that mimic the sound of violent, howling wind.

Stevens did everything himself on Convocations; he wrote, produced, recorded, and mixed the entire album by himself. If “Revelation II” reflects Stevens’ attempt to capture the sound in his head at any particular moment, then that moment must not have been an easy one. Listen below.

The full version of Convocations is out 5/6 on Asthmatic Kitty. Pre-order it here.

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