creative deconstruction

New Music Review: Sufjan Stevens – The BQE

Posted on 19. Oct, 2009 by refe in ARTISTS, NEWS

October has been a big month for Sufjan Stevens (who I wrote about yesterday, if you missed it.) Run Rabbit Run dropped on the 6th, and today brings us the release of another Sufjan Stevens project - The BQE. Much like Run Rabbit Run, which is a chamber music re-imagining of Sufjan’s electronic sophomore album Enjoy Your Rabbit, The BQE is more of an interesting digression than a conventional album. Unlike Rabbit, this one actually sounds like a Sufjan Stevens record.

The BQE, which Stevens’ label describes as “a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Hula-Hoop” was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The piece was originally performed at the in the Howard Gilman Opera House in October of 2007. Accompanying the musical score was an original film that spanned three separate screens and depicted the expressway, as well as a troupe of live hoola hoop girls called the Hooper Heroes.

Two years after its original performance, Stevens has adapted the work for a double disc format which includes both the soundtrack and the film. I will only be reviewing the musical portion because I haven’t had a chance to view the film.

Sufjan’s work has always featured complex, occasionally classically inspired arrangements. This time he goes all out, crafting a pseudo-classical symphony inspired by folk-pop, jazz, Philip Glass and 70’s era film score. It is certainly his most expansive project to date. Excluding the film, the choreography, the comic book (yes, the special edition version comes with a 40 page Hooper Heroes comic book) there are seven movements, a prelude, an introductory fanfare for the Hooper Heroes, and a postlude.

Sufjan performing The BQE

In many ways The BQE marks the return of Steven’s signature arranging style, relying heavily on brass and woodwinds and quirky, sentimental melodic themes. Run Rabbit Run was a significant departure, being performed exclusively by strings. Still conspicuously absent, however, is Stevens’ voice.  Sufjan is a gifted storyteller, and is no stranger to highly conceptual projects such as The BQE. We’re talking about the guy who once planned to write an album for each of the fifty American states. Yet, whether it was a requirement of the commission or a personal choice, Sufjan tells the tale of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway entirely through music and multi-media, rather than through words. And while part of me can’t help but feel disappointed, the result is undeniably a remarkable piece of music.

As a piece of classical music The BQE is a solid effort. He leans on many familiar conventions while sprinkling a decent helping of his own clever twists. Movement II – Sleeping Invader, for example, depicts the late night ambiance of car horns and squealing brakes by pairing the quiet rise and fall of strings with the distant rat-a-tat dissonance of a blatting trumpet. The fourth movement’s swirling synthesizers and manic dance-floor beat cut the album in half, providing a prolonged electronic interlude depicting the chaos of rush hour traffic.

At a few points it may become clear to the more discerning ear that this is Sufjan’s first foray into the classical realm. Thankfully, I am in no way a classical music aficionado (although I do love the work of Stravinsky, and more recently Philip Glass. My wife and I almost walked down the aisle to Glass’s Clouds.) I had no qualms about his handling of the genre.

The BQE is a great addition to the Sufjan Stevens catalogue, not simply for its novelty, but for its quality as well. It isn’t likely to satiate fans’ hunger for a true Illinoise follow-up, however. In the same interview I commented on yesterday, Sufjan says this in reference to The BQE:

I feel that The BQE is not really a song, it’s not really a movie, it’s not really just a soundtrack. It’s so ambiguous and diversified, it seems to lack shape. And the expressway itself lacks shape, so I feel like it’s all related to this existential crisis: Me versus the BQE, or me versus my work, y’know? And I don’t think I can win; I feel like it’s a losing battle…

Hopefully the songwriter’s existential crisis will come to a resolution soon so that the world will continue to benefit from his creations.

Listen to The BQE: Movement VI – Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges

Buy The BQE on Amazon.

Tags: bqe, classical, indie, philip glass, reviews, Sufjan Stevens