Avalanche!

Well, it looks like being away in Greece I missed out on this - and it's probably been all over the blogosphere, so I'll post it anyway...! (Greece was truly awesome, by the way!)

Seemed that there was a little too much in the way of silence from Sufjan? Well, aside from all those contributions to other projects, and extra tracks that have been floating about, such as The Avalanche (which eventually made it as a bonus onto the vinyl release of Illinoise)...

Well, it seems that Illinoise was only the beginning (from the Asthmatic Kitty website):*

The little secret behind the Illinois record is that it was originally conceived as a double album, culminating in a musical collage of nearly 50 songs. But as the project began to develop into an unwieldy epic, common sense weighed in—as did the opinions of others—and the project was cut in half. But as 2005 came to a close, Sufjan returned to the old, forsaken songs on his 8-track like a grandfather remembering his youth, indulging in old journals and newspaper clippings. What he uncovered went beyond the merits of nostalgia; it was more like an ensemble of capricious friends and old acquaintances wearing party outfits, waiting to be let in at the front door, for warm drinks and interesting conversation. Among them were Saul Bellow, Ann Landers, Adlai Stevenson, and a brief cameo from Henry Darger's Vivian Girls. The gathering that followed would become the setting for the songs on The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album.

(read more here)

I can't remember where it was, but I read somewhere out on the blogosphere that Sufjan was planning on giving up his music for a bit; on the strength of this, though it looks like he's going to be just as prolific as he has been for the last couple of years. I'll be very interested to find out if he's able to keep up the momentum, though - after the magnificence of Michigan and Illinoise, can Sufjan keep it going, or is he going to end up exhausting all his good ideas - and will his audience be able to take it? Have we reached Sufjan saturation level yet?

Tracklist:

1. The Avalanche
2. Dear Mr Supercomputer
3. Adlai Stevenson
4. The Vivian Girls Are Visited In the Night by Saint Dargarius and his Squadron of Benevolent Butterflies
5. Chicago (acoustic version)
6. The Henney Buggy Band
7. Saul Bellow
8. Carlyle Lake
9. Springfield, or Bobby Got a Shadfly Caught in his Hair
10. The Mistress Witch from McClure (or, The Mind That Knows Itself)
11. Kaskaskia River
12. Chicago (adult contemporary easy listening version)
13. Inaugural Pop Music for Jane Margaret Byrne
14. No Man's Land
15. The Palm Sunday Tornado Hits Crystal Lake
16. The Pick-up
17. The Perpetual Self, or "What Would Saul Alinsky Do?"
18. For Clyde Tombaugh
19. Chicago (Multiple Personality Disorder version)
20. Pittsfield
21. The Undivided Self (for Eppie and Popo)

I'm pretty interested to hear the 'adult contemporary easy listening version' of Chicago...

Release date is 11th July, 2006.

Here's the title track from The Avalanche, in it's previous form as the Illinoise bonus track, plus one other:

Sufjan Stevens: The Avalanche
Sufjan Stevens: Adlai Stevenson

*Thanks to Shane in the Torture Garden for the heads up on this one; Adlai Stevenson came via the Torture Garden and I Guess I'm Floating. Cheers guys!