Tim van Berkestijn, better known by his stage name Benny Sings, is a Dutch pop artist who has released 6 albums on different labels, currently signed to Stones Throw Records. Since 2003, he has produced four studio albums and one live album.

少年不識愁滋味，為賦新詞強說愁。好似灑脫卻充滿框架，好似追求、期盼什麼卻只是不斷印證自己的可笑一般。其實就是醜奴兒自己心裡的對話與拉扯，希望能藉由歌詞的意境，讓悲傷的人看見自己的模樣，在片刻抒發後，認清自我。總體而言，文字創作的方面，我們希望以文字作為一面鏡子反面對照自我，也許表面較為負面但期盼人們依舊能意識到作為一個「人」不該遺忘的本質。

For almost a decade, Agnes Obel has been one of the most independent and original artists in contemporary music. Now she has returned with new album Myopia – through Deutsche Grammophon, Universal Music Group’s prestigious Yellow Label, and Blue Note in North America.
Following the same principles as with her previous albums (Philharmonics, Aventine and Citizen Of Glass), which she completed as a one-woman project in her own Berlin home studio, Obel has been under self-imposed creative isolation with the removal of all outside influences and distraction in the writing, recording and mixing process.
“The albums I’ve worked on have all required that I build a bubble of some kind in which everything becomes about the album. For me the production is intertwined with the lyrics and story behind the songs,” says Obel.
This is precisely what makes her music so compelling and the same is true with Myopia. “Paradoxically, for me I need to create my own myopia to make music.” Obel was experimenting with techniques of recording processing, warping and pitching down vocals, strings, piano, celesta and lutheal piano, finding ways to melt these elements together to become one and twisting them in a way that you feel at home within the sound she conjures throughout the record. Although her music can often curate a monologue of modern-day dystopian-esque news stories that we are all now subject to, the contents of 'Island Of Doom' - first single to be released, are much more personal, as she explains: “The song is made up of pitched-down piano and cello pizzicato and vocals, all choirs are pitched down and up… In my experience when someone close to you dies it is simply impossible to comprehend that you can’t ever talk to them or reach them somehow ever again. They are in many ways still alive because in your consciousness nothing has changed, they’re still there with everyone else you know.”

Sometimes it can take years to find your calling. Not so, for wanderer Julie Byrne; whose power of lyrical expression and melodic nous seems inborn. But often, what comes naturally demonstrates against speed. Julie's second album Not Even Happiness has taken time to evolve, but as it spans recollections of bustling roadside diners, the stars over the high desert, the aching weariness of change, the wildflowers on the coast of California and the irresolvable mysteries of love. Her new album archives a vivid world that would've otherwise been lost to the road and in doing so, Byrne exhibits her extraordinarily innate musicality. In fact, some of the album's songs took two years of fine tuning to get where they needed to be. And if you were to ask her why the follow up to 2014's Rooms With Walls And Windows has taken so long, you'd only be greeted with a bemused smile as though it's the strangest question she's ever been asked; "Writing comes from a natural process of change and growth. It took me up to this point to have the capacity to express my experience of the time in my life that these songs came from."

Norwegian rock group.
Members:
Eirik Glambek Bøe: Vocals, bass
Anders Waage Nilsen: Drums, percussion
Øystein Gjærder Bruvik: Vocals, guitar

加拿大独立摇滚乐队拱廊之火(Arcade Fire)即将于8月2日发行专辑《郊外》(The Suburbs)。在推出两张成功的专辑之后，拱廊之火的第三张录音室专辑非常让歌迷期待。
《郊外》华丽的开篇唱到：“当我年轻的时候，希望有个女儿，我想牵着她的手，给她看美好的事物，在一切被破坏以前。”这种闲聊式的独白通常会以民谣来表达，拱廊之火却将它与体育馆摇滚结合起来，鼓点和键盘的旋律就像洪水一样滚滚而来。看来这才是赶时髦和尼尔扬结合的方式。和他们的音乐导师U2、布鲁斯·斯普林斯汀不同，拱廊之火对生活细节不感兴趣。当巴特勒唱到开车去休斯顿时，他只是说“我们听到引擎失灵的声音”，而斯普林斯汀则会告诉你到底是哪个零件出了问题(例如《Racing in the Street》<街头比赛>)。但这正是拱廊之火广受欢迎的原因之一，他们邀您共同体验解决问题的经过和成功后的喜悦。
《郊外》中的很多歌曲描绘了乐队对现实生活的体验。在《洛可可》中，夏莎妮和队友们用和声绝妙演绎了热情消退的过程。《准备开始》是独立乐队为名望所累的写照，巴特勒在歌中埋怨：“生意人，他们喝我们的血/就像艺术学校的孩子们一样。”让他失去信任的不只是艺术学校的孩子们，还有混乱的世界：“他们在70年代建造的所有房屋最终倒塌/毫无意义”。说到70年代，拱廊之火的音乐家们显然是从父辈收藏的德国艺术摇滚唱片中获得了灵感，这使得《准备开始》和《五月》这样的快歌显得格外简洁和均衡。《五月》这样描述那些不买账的摇滚观众：“孩子们紧抱着胳膊站着那里”。这句歌词原本会变成一个类似“滚出我的草坪”的长句，结果只用一个生动的画面就表达出来了。《深蓝》用华丽的钢琴来营造情绪，很像大卫·邦威的《Hunky Dory》(匈牙利渔船)。在那张专辑中，邦威用非常私人的视角讲述了父母和子女的关系。《郊外》的结尾是充满柔情和怜悯的，因为尽管有太多的哀与怒，拱廊之火从来没有远离过那些父母和孩子们。

Reflektor is the fourth studio album by the Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire, released on October 28, 2013 on Merge Records. A double album, Reflektor was co-produced by former LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy, regular Arcade Fire producer Markus Dravs, and the band itself.

一直都有最大的冲动写This Mortal Coil,毕竟他们是我最认同和喜欢的乐队，反而这成了我写他们的最大障碍，怎么写自己也不满意。也一直有感觉想介绍《Blood》给大家，因为一些凌乱却最简单的原因，算了就让我这样凌乱的说出来吧：
从我3年半前拥有这张唱片的时候就把它当成自己听过的最优秀的一张，现在依然这样认为；他是在Darkwave/低调音乐圈里面的高标，把那种超纯唯美，超纯阴暗的色调深入到一个别人难以企及的境地。这样的事情，以前没有人尝试做过，以后也难以有人超越；也是到目前为止我唯一一次勒紧腰带，连续三次购买同张原版唱片的傻瓜行为的元凶；我想说的是，很高兴我能拥有This Mortal Coil的每张大碟，每张都是给我满分的感受，但是，这张：却更远远不是满分那么一点；你认同4AD么？喜欢Cocteau Twins,Dead Can Dance,difjuz等低调乐队么？嗯，别那么早否定/肯定完4AD，直到听过这个真正4AD的精髓和灵魂的所在，这个致命线圈为止吧；或者不是因为This Mortal Coil的出现，在那个时代，那些游离在死亡和崩溃边缘的音乐,Bauhaus,xmaldeutashland，都会失去探求无边黑暗的引标和强大而统一的力量……
这张Blood中，最吸引的地方不只是因为首脑人物，Ivo(4AD老板)不再局限在4AD王国里面发展This Mortal Coil，而是聚集了各处精英，而且在以前This Mortal Coil那深黑不见底的纯唯美世界里面引入了那么丝丝点点亮光.
从我个人的角度来说：有了这一张，其他唱片都可以放弃。

Planetarium is an album co-composed by four musicians: Bryce Dessner, James McAlister, Nico Muhly, and Sufjan Stevens. Flanked by a string quartet and a consort of seven trombones, this unique collaborative ensemble has assembled an expansive song cycle that explores the Sun, the Moon, the planets and other celestial bodies of our solar system (and beyond) through soundscape, song, science and myth.
The subject of the album is not just the wilderness of outer space, but the interior space of human consciousness and how it engages with divinity, depravity, society and self—what does it mean to be human? This existential question rings clear from the opening lyric: “What’s right and what’s wrong?” The 75 minutes of music that follow provide a complex thesis: to be human is to be a total mess. The result of this creative alliance is a musical and aesthetic journey as far-reaching as its subject: from lush piano ballads to prog-rock political anthems, curious electronic back-beats to classical cadenzas, the vast musical styles seek to explore the diversity and mystery of our cosmos.
Planetarium is a concept album that occasionally gives way to ambient interludes and majestic brass chorales, buttressed by a percussive drive that keeps the momentum skyward. In spite of all the experimentation in sound and style, Sufjan’s vocals provide a clear and coherent center of gravity. The album includes some of his most diverse vocal performances to date (from soft hush to guttural scream), and whether he’s singing through effects pedals, vocoders, auto-tune or not, his voice delivers an ambitious flight map through the cosmos.
♆
The project started when the Dutch concert hall Muziekgebouw Eindhoven commissioned Nico to create a new piece for their audience, and Nico immediately thought of his friends Bryce and Sufjan.
“I’d known Sufjan for years,” says Nico, “and Bryce and I had been in each other’s business” — but, says Bryce, “we’d never worked on something this ambitious together.” Each of the four brought their discrete and complementary strengths to the project. Nico’s experience with composing music for cathedral choirs and symphony orchestras provided the framework for the piece, while Bryce brought his own sense of composition and orchestral color.
“Of the three of us, Bryce is the most virtuosic at his instrument,” said Nico. A studied and accomplished classical musician, Bryce was also fluent in Nico’s unique musical language, and added a layer of rhythmic complexity to the songs.”
Sufjan became the driver behind the “song” part of the song cycle. (Bryce: “I think ‘seven trombones’ was enough to lure Sufjan into it.”) Sufjan also brought lyrics, and with them, the larger ideas around which Planetarium revolves: mythology and astrology, the ancient concept that stars and planets of the night sky represent gods, heroes and monsters. As the project evolved, the group expanded the idea to encompass science and astronomy.
Sufjan also introduced frequent collaborator James McAlister to Bryce and Nico, and James brought the beats—drums, percussion and electronic sequencing.
“Once James got involved,” says Sufjan, “he was like the glue.” Nico might compose a thunderous passage for the orchestra; Bryce might conceive of an elaborate guitar harmony; Sufjan would write the verses and refrains; and James’ beats and electronic textures would bind these disparate contributions into a continuous movement of music.
Nico describes the product of those early working sessions as something like a single manuscript, overwritten by many hands, with each individual contribution legible on the finished document.
♀
In addition to the collaboration among the four musicians, Planetarium also bears the marks of its long evolution from writing to live performance to recording.
“Fast, cheap and out of control,” says Sufjan of those early moments in their process together. It was a “feverish” period of creation, he says—literally; he fell ill just as they were preparing to present the project in its earliest version, and had to perform one of the songs as an instrumental because he had gotten too sick to finish writing the words.
The piece then evolved with sporadic but intense flashes of activity. For each performance, the band continued to fine-tune the cycle, adding new elements and refining or replacing the old.
The studio version took the iterative process forward by another leap. “We had recorded all the arrangements and the live parts in a studio after our last performance,” says Sufjan, “so years later when we all kind of settled down, we said, ‘Let’s open Pandora’s box.’”
James and Sufjan, who have worked together on all of Sufjan’s records since Illinois, inverted their usual process of adapting studio music into a live set. Along the way, Planetarium was “built up and torn down multiple times,” says Bryce.
“The record has a footprint of all the various timelines,” says Bryce, “you hear things from the very first jam sessions and you hear things from a month ago.”
But despite that initial frenetic energy, a year passed between the first performance of the project and the original recording, and then several more years passed before they finally set out to finish it. By that time the four friends were in different places, both literally and figuratively.
Bryce, who at the start of the project was Sufjan’s neighbor in Brooklyn, had released several albums of his own instrumental compositions and helped score last year’s Oscar-winning best picture The Revenant and then moved on to his new home in Paris.
Nico had taken a break from composing any electronic music whatsoever—instead creating hours of music for classical instruments and voices, including a new viola concerto, and a new commission—Marnie—for the Metropolitan Opera.
Sufjan had released Carrie & Lowell and, along with James, taken the album on tour.
⛢
The band wasn’t the only thing that had changed since creating and recording the piece; the rest of the world had changed too. The album’s mythology and astrology underpinnings suddenly seemed less novel and more “prescient and relevant to the state of the world now,” says Sufjan, “As I kept listening to it, I felt this kind of utter terror and foreboding.”
“We’ve returned to the question of identity and humanity and human rights, and what does it mean to be a person in our world? What is our relationship to our world, and the environment?” says Sufjan, “What does it mean to believe in a divine being, and what does that divine being require of us?”
“That divine being,” says Sufjan, “is often inspired by the cosmos.”
Compared to “the unreachable, insurmountable, distant mystery of the universe,” says Sufjan, “all of a sudden it feels so small—it feels so claustrophobic, on planet earth. I see now why we look to the stars,” says Sufjan.

历时一年潜心创作，窦靖童推出全新概念专辑《Kids Only》。专辑共10首歌，她一手包办作词作曲，更担任专辑制作人，带来一张原汁原味，非常“窦靖童”的音乐大碟。 去年窦靖童发布首张原创专辑《Stone Café》在乐坛引起极大反响，其特立独行的音乐态度和令人耳目一新的音乐风格，带给乐迷极大惊喜。被一众资深乐评人看好为华语流行乐坛未来之星的她，终于在今年夏天交出第二份令人欣喜的答卷。 《Kids Only》是一张更加丰富多元的音乐作品。正式踏入乐坛之后，窦靖童在音乐上的探索更加深入，先后赴日本、英国、美国演出，和世界顶级音乐人合作，在音乐创作上迅速成长。在这张专辑中，窦靖童有更多音乐风格的尝试，更有对中国音乐的独立思考：“我常常在想一个问题，到底是什么才算是中国音乐？对我而言，可能不是语言、乐器、或者某一种节奏、旋律，而是一种气场。我是中国人，那么我做出来的音乐，自然就有中国味道吧。” 谈及这张专辑的创作过程，童童表示这张专辑更能反映自己现时的状态：“第一张专辑发行的时候，离创作那些歌已经有一段时间了，多少会有些距离感。而这一次我觉得自己和《Kids Only》是平行的，它就是当下的我。”新专辑里的歌曲大部分采取同期录制，每首歌都邀请不同的音乐人参与，大家甚至可以在录制中自由发挥，这种融合与碰撞产生了奇妙的化学反应，然后把每一个当下记录串联起来，成就了鲜活可爱的《Kids Only》。 细心聆听《Kids Only》，你会从中感受到窦靖童徜徉在音乐世界的自由灵魂。歌里有顽皮的孩子气，有少年时代的烦恼与忧愁，有她的放肆狡黠也有温柔乖张。她坦言这张专辑的风格是不固定的，更没有什么目的性，连专辑封面都是随手拿来表弟的照片改图完成的，俏皮又随性。她的音乐注定无法用文字定义，因为她是独一无二的窦靖童。

加拿大独立摇滚乐团 Arcade Fire 于 2004 年携首张专辑《Funeral》登场面世。Win Butler 的声音破碎、脆弱、凶猛而又浪漫，他笔下的《Funeral》有着无数的含义，既是爱与死亡，孤独与聚合，又关乎全体人类的命运，带着寓言式的悲观情绪。无论是《Rebellion (Lies)》对梦境与死亡的探索，还是《Neighborhood 1 (Tunnels)》中唯美清冷的意境，都展现出他们别样的美学观念和艺术气息。

‘Thank You for Today’ is the sound of Death Cab for Cutie both expanding and refining; a band twenty years into its evolution, still uncovering new curves in its signatures, new sonic corners to explore. The Seattle band’s ninth studio album, recorded in Los Angeles with producer Rich Costey in late 2017 and early 2018, stands alongside classic Death Cab for Cutie albums including their 1998 debut ‘Something About Airplanes’ and 2003’s masterful ‘Transatlanticism’ as a definitive collection -- ten tracks that are by turns beautiful and dynamic and darkly anthemic and bittersweet. “I realized early on in the process that I wanted to write a record that is very much who we are,” says singer and guitarist Ben Gibbard. “I wanted to go more inward, and create something more personal.” On songs such as the kinetic “Gold Rush,” “Northern Lights” and “You Moved Away,” Gibbard ruminates on the flux going on in his hometown, and weaves a thread throughout the album about how interconnected geography is with memory, and how hard it can be to hold onto places, and to people, too.
Since the band’s fifth studio album ‘Plans’, Gibbard has employed the practice of going to the studio almost daily, to work on songs, even when they weren’t coming easily. “At first, I’m just throwing stuff at the wall, meditating on a number of different subjects, just trying to get lucky,” he says. Before he knew it, Gibbard had amassed more than thirty song ideas, sketched out in demos he’d share with bassist Nick Harmer, drummer Jason McGerr, guitarist/keyboardist Dave Depper, and keyboardist/guitarist Zac Rae as well as Costey. “At one point I had written so much I thought we might have two records,” says Gibbard. “But we wanted it to be concise enough that you can listen all the way through and then want to put it on again immediately.”
“The thing about Ben and his writing that to me is most inspiring is that every day, he shows up and does the work,” says Harmer. “He’ll have discouraging days and uplifting days, but his sense of discipline and commitment to his craft is just unbelievable.” Early on, a few demos started raising their hands as favorites, says Harmer. The hypnagogic album opener, “I Dreamt We Spoke Again,” with its indelible chorus, a haunting doorbell chime, and a guitar line reminiscent of ‘Music For The Masses’-era Depeche Mode, stood out right away as what Harmer calls “one of those immediately captivating tracks.”
“Gold Rush,” on the other hand, was nearly an abandoned demo that Costey encouraged Gibbard to reapproach. The song, built around a propulsive sample from Yoko Ono’s epic 1972 track “Mind Train,” ended up becoming one of the album’s most exciting tunes -- “a requiem for a skyline” and to a city whose rapid-fire development has led to a sky peppered with cranes and scaffolding. “I’ve had this realization only recently that so many of my memories are tied to my geography,” says Gibbard, describing the inspiration for the tune. “And when that geography changes, it’s as if you’re not only coming to terms with the passage of time, but it’s as if you’re losing those people and that time in your life all over again. Cities are in constant flux, and I’m not claiming victimhood in this, but the speed at which Seattle is changing, and people of color and creative communities are being pushed out, is alarming.”
Expanding on that idea in “You Moved Away,” Gibbard addresses his friend, the artist Derek Erdman, who recently left Seattle to move back to his native Chicago. “He’s an agent provacateur who does playful, absurdist art,” Gibbard explains. “He represented a kind of irreverent, sardonic side of Seattle that is rapidly disappearing as the city gets too expensive. I used to walk by Derek’s apartment on my way to the grocery store, and I’d look up and see in his window all these pieces of art he’d made. And I walk by his apartment now and I get so sad.”
Another song anchored by familiar geography is the late-album winner “Northern Lights,” which references Dye’s Inlet, in Gibbard’s hometown. “I wanted to write a song that was like a John Hughes movie that takes place in my hometown,” he says, “about two people in this suburban wasteland with nothing to do who spend their time on this body of water, one pining for the other, yet both knowing that this place will be a temporary stop in a much longer life.”
Although Gibbard’s initial creative process for this album was much the same as it had been on other recent Death Cab for Cutie LPs, there was an important change when it came time to start pre-production and recording: the addition of new members Dave Depper and Zac Rae, both of whom contribute guitar and keys. In the wake of founding member Chris Walla’s departure in 2014, Death Cab for Cutie had recruited Depper and Rae to join the band as touring players for the shows supporting their 2015 album ‘Kintsugi’. After more than a year and a half of performances together, Gibbard, Harmer and McGerr felt confident enough in Depper and Rae’s creative instincts to invite them to contribute on the new LP, as well. Says Harmer: “The excitement and enthusiasm Dave and Zac had to be part of the process was just infectious. It helped add a playfulness that allowed us to take some risks and laugh if it didn’t work out and high-five if it did. There was a freedom in just playing with one another and letting these guys show us what they were capable of, and giving them room to create.”
“Not only do we love these guys, but it felt like it would be to our benefit to make the next record with them rather than as a three piece,” says Gibbard. “Dave and Zac bring such unbelievable skill sets to the band that we’ve never had.” He cites, for instance, the array of keyboards and synthesizers Rae had at his disposal, and his accompanying skills playing them, for “tiny melodies and ambient sounds” on “Summer Years” that he says give the song a weight and complexity that it wouldn’t have had otherwise. “There’s a nervousness about bringing new people into the creative process, especially if you have lost a seminal member of the band,” says Gibbard, “But Dave and Zac were fans of the band before they were members, so they have a unique perspective on the music that the other three of us can’t see.”
The five members of Death Cab spent several weeks with Costey in his Santa Monica recording studio last fall, recording basic tracks live and later fleshing out additional layers. When they first arrived, Costey had recently finished working with another band, and had adopted their habit of closing each session by saying “Thank you for today” to each of the musicians. “We started saying it to each other every day, no matter what kind of day it had been,” Harmer says. "Whether it had been frustrating or a really great day, we’d all shake each other’s hands and say ‘Thank you for today.’ As time went on, it really started to mean something to us. It’s almost like a Rorschach test, in that it’s an oddly adaptable statement. And when we were thinking about what to call the album, it just seemed to fit so perfectly.”

积极注射文艺戒断针
不造作不矫情
不问问题
比如一段旅程始于哪里结束于哪里
问了会很麻烦
所有问题与答案已经混杂得无法分辨
因为时间太长
长到连过程都忘了
那些或闪光或灰暗的片段竟不那么有意义
怀念便成了一种习惯
也许这都不重要了
关心新的电影，新的综艺，新歌，新的八卦才是重要的
很多年前不也是这样么
并没有什么不同
有了更多的分享不是很好么
很热闹不是很好么
妈妈总是对的
我们什么都不缺
古人也是对的
爱上层楼，欲说还休
2018年，
刺猬，一支乐队
他们写出了这样一首歌
《火车驶向云外，梦安魂于九霄》
虽然马不停蹄
不过请放心
珍贵的已被好好安放
不须回望
身后已人山人海
窗外景色太快了
但停下来
却已抵达故乡
刺猬
2018年全新单曲
《火车驶向云外，梦安魂于九霄》
赤瞳音乐×太合麦田 出品
青春的殉道

Death Cab, 来自华盛顿柏林汉姆的四人Indie Pop乐团Death Cab for Cutie成立于1997年，默默无闻两年之后他们签到了独立厂牌Barsuk（俄语獾熊的意思），并且成功的推出了三张专辑。去年10月份发行的这张《Transatlanticism》（横贯大西洋主义）是他们在Barsuk旗下发行的第四张录音室作品了，不知道他能否续写三年前专辑《We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes》的辉煌。乐队的名字来自英国六十年代末著名迷幻乐队The Bonzo Dog Band的处女作专辑《Gorilla》里的一首歌的名字，他们不愿对此解释过多，只说去听听那首歌就知道了。Death Cab for Cutie的才华在他们的首张专辑里《Something About Airplanes》里就崭露头角，一曲迷幻气息浓厚的《President Of What》里的风琴和唱腔犹如The Doors的重显就让人们大吃一惊。可是这只是乐队对自己过去的怀念罢了，乐队于2000年发行的专辑《We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes》以全新的Indie Pop姿态示人，专辑中的歌曲清新馍人。 多数Death Cab for Cutie的歌都像是歌者的自述，他讲的都是生活中的领悟和对未来的美好憧憬。乐队主唱Ben Gibbard说：“我们的歌曲是真诚的，也许我们会为丘比特的冷落而忧心忡忡，也许我们不会把痛苦和听众分享，但是我们只是想唱一些快乐的歌曲与别人分享。”可是不幸在2000年的夏天降临到乐队身上，一连串的事故让这几个年轻人心灰意冷，先是乐队因为经理人的问题产生了激烈的矛盾，然后鼓手Nathan Good的离开让乐队几乎解散。好在最后乐队克服了这些矛盾，他们找来了新的鼓手Michael Schorr并且录制了一张纪念这段经历的EP《Forbidden Love》。2003年出版这张专辑《Transatlanticism》之前，乐队又加入了新的成员，也许这对他们来说是一个新的开始.

Every record I make has an archetype,” says Clark. “‘Strange Mercy’ was Housewives on Pills. ‘St. Vincent’ was Near-Future Cult Leader. ‘MASSEDUCTION’ is different, it’s pretty first person. You can’t fact-check it, but if you want to know about my life, listen to this record.” ‘MASSEDUCTION’ is the culmination of years of writing, with songs crafted from voice memos, text messages, and snippets of melodies that came to Clark while traveling the globe. Special guests on the album include Thomas Bartlett on piano, Kamasi Washington on saxophone, Jenny Lewis on vocals, and beat production from Sounwave. Greg Leisz and Rich Hinman add pedal steel, and Tuck and Patti Andress contribute guitar and vocals respectively on select tracks.

Illinois (styled Sufjan Stevens Invites You To: Come On Feel the Illinoise on the cover; sometimes written as Illinoise) is a 2005 concept album by American indie folk songwriter Sufjan Stevens. It is his fifth studio album, and features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois. Illinois is Stevens' second based on a U.S. state—part of a planned series of fifty that began with the 2003 album Michigan that Stevens has since acknowledged was a gag.

The Greatest Gift Mixtape — Outtakes, Remixes, & Demos from Carrie & Lowell is due out October 20 via Asthmatic Kitty. It includes unreleased songs from the album sessions, as well as iPhone recordings and remixes from Helado Negro, Doveman, and more.
The Greatest Gift will be released on cassette, LP, and digital formats.