Stream Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine’s New Album A Beginner’s Mind

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Stream Sufjan Stevens & Angelo De Augustine’s New Album A Beginner’s Mind

Folky Sufjan is back, baby! Following last year’s electronics-heavy The Ascension and this year’s instrumental ambient-leaning Convocations, Sufjan Stevens is returning to his acoustic guitar roots with A Beginner’s Mind, a full-length collaboration with Los Angeles musician (and Asthmatic Kitty signee) Angelo De Augustine.

The 14 songs on A Beginner’s Mind came from a month that Stevens and De Augustine spent living and writing at a friend’s cabin in upstate New York. Using the Zen Buddhist concept of shoshin (literally “a beginner’s mind”), the I-CHing, and Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies as guiding principles, they ended up taking inspiration from the movies they’d watch every night to unwind, ranging from Wim Wenders’ Wings Of Desire to the direct-to-video Bring It On sequel Bring It On Again.

Stevens and De Augustine have been sharing songs from the album in pairs for months now. We’ve already heard “Reach Out” and “Olympus,” “Back To Oz” and “Fictional California,” and “Cimmerian Shade” and “You Give Death A Bad Name.” Today, the entirety of A Beginner’s Mind is out in the world, and you can stream the whole thing below.

A Beginner’s Guide is out now on Asthmatic Kitty.

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