STEVENS, SUFJAN & ANDRES, TIMO - The Decalogue (Sealed) (LP)

Sufjan will release his score for Justin Peck’s ballet The Decalogue —ten etudes for solo piano— The title of "The Decalogue" has a touch of the grandiose: it means "The Ten Commandments." Yet this score, composed by Sufjan Stevens for a dance work choreographed by Justin Peck that premiered with the New York City Ballet in May of 2017, is quiet and experimental. Stevens's piano score, as played and recorded by Timo Andres, sounds like etudes in the Romantic-modernist tradition, as if prompted by Debussy. With "The Decalogue," now released digitally, and on vinyl and CD, Sufjan is making-gently, without ostentation-new departures. "Sufjan Stevens is one of the most prolific and absolutely gifted American songwriters of the 21st century."-NPR "Stevens remains at the height of his powers-capable of work as individual, compassionate and powerful as any American composer working today."-The Washington Post