Sufjan Stevens - The BQE

The Brooklyn based songwriter Sufjan Stevens has built up a reputation for making music that is nothing short of boundary pushing with releases ranging from Lo Fi folk to Electronica and with 'The BQE' He once again takes things even further with what is described as 'a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.'
Commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), The BQE was originally performed in the Howard Gilman Opera House in celebration of the 25th anniversary Next Wave Festival in October of 2007 and finally makes the jump to cd.
This bold and very ambitious project which doesn't just take the form of an album, in fact this cd was created as the soundtrack to the film documenting
one of New York's ugliest attractions and how the industrial look and feel to the bridge is intersected by the many shapes and colour of the traffic crossing it. The film which is also shot by Stevens, among others was shot very DIY style and encompasses various editing and post production techniques. There is also a 40 page comic book based around the film.
The album itself is a bit of a strange one until you learn a little bit more about the huge amount of background information on it but the more I hear it the more I think that this is as I expected, a work of genius. Without actually watching the film you can fully enjoy this as a standalone album, with some absolutely beautifully orchestrated moments such as 'Movement II: Sleeping Invader' which fills me with joy every time I hear it and many more on an album that mixes classical woodwind sections with strange time signatures and some few and far between glitchy electro beats.
Mr Stevens certainly doesn't do things by halves and the BQE really takes things a few steps further than normal. Watch the film, read the book and listen to the cd, then maybe there will be an insight into the weird and wonderful world of Sufjan Stevens.