{"product_id":"sufjan-stevens-angelo-de-augustine-a-beginners-mind-cd","title":"Sufjan Stevens \u0026 Angelo De Augustine - A Beginner's Mind CD","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt’s been said that writing about music is like dancing about architecture (impossible and absurd). But what about singing about movies? \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine have paired up for a collaborative project that does just that. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA Beginner’s Mind \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eis their debut album that contains 14 songs (loosely) based on (mostly) popular films. The source material is highbrow, lowbrow, and everything in between. The music is folksy, sweet, sincere and harmonically effervescent—Simon \u0026amp; Garfunkel with New Age flourishes. This album runs the gamut and has fun with it, even while its songwriters remain fully rooted in the melancholy folk idioms they are known for.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eStevens and De Augustine wrote everything with a deliberate sense of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eshoshin\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e—the Zen Buddhist concept for which the record is named and an idea that empowered the pair to look for and write about unlikely inspiration without preconceived notions of what a film had to say. The underlying objective was \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eempathy\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eopenness\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e, absent of judgment: to observe what is pure and good—or seemingly dark and villainous—with the eyes of a child. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eDaniel Anum Jasper, a pioneer of Ghanian movie poster painting,  was commissioned to paint a series of new works for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA Beginner’s Mind\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. Information about the project was kept vague so that Mr. Jasper could work without restraint. Mythical deities and monsters, zombies, skydivers and a celebrated American director (Jonathan Demme, to whom the album is dedicated) were submitted as visual cues. The resulting paintings are a graphic simulacrum for the same sense of wonder, wordplay, and intrigue that shape \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA Beginner’s Mind\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003e. By transforming old films into vital new songs, Stevens and De Augustine ask us to consider ourselves from a previously unconsidered vantage point—a new way of seeing and hearing—an exercise that’s as necessary and relevant now as it’s ever been.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/asthmatickitty.com\/merch\/a-beginners-mind\/\" title=\"Full album description\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eRead full album description here\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDue to material shortages, color variations between pressings may occur.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sufjan Stevens \u0026 Angelo De Augustine","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42759682261063,"sku":"AKR143CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0185\/9528\/products\/AKR143---Digital-Cover-Art---1500x1500.jpg?v=1758033624","url":"https:\/\/store.asthmatickitty.com\/products\/sufjan-stevens-angelo-de-augustine-a-beginners-mind-cd","provider":"Asthmatic Kitty Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}