Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges
Sufjan Stevens has not been in the headlines as of late, however, he did recently announce that he is releasing a “re-imagined” version of his 2001 instrumental album Enjoy Your Rabbit and a very cool multimedia set documenting his 2007 “BQE” piece on October 20. Here is a video from that project of the BQE with heaps of hula-hooping/wheel-spinning fun on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. The photography was captured by Reuben Kleiner and Sufjan Stevens himself.
More on the BQE
“The project, dubbed a “symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York City’s infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway”, was manifested in a live show. The BQE featured an original film by Stevens (shot in Super 8 mm film and standard 16 mm), while Stevens and a backing orchestra provided the live soundtrack. The performance used 36 performers which included a small band, a wind and brass ensemble, string players, horn players, and hula hoopers. There were no lyrics to the music. The BQE was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of their Next Wave Festival and performed on three consecutive nights from November 1–3, 2007.
The performance sold out the 2,109 seat BAM Opera House without any advertising. After three weeks of rehearsing the piece with the three dozen musicians involved he presented the 30-minute composition. The BQE was followed by an additional one hour of concert by Stevens and his orchestra. The BQE won the 2008 Brendan Gill Prize.
On July 21, 2009 it was announced that the multimedia package would be released on October 20, 2009. It will consist of a CD of the show’s soundtrack, a DVD of Brooklyn-Queen Expressway footage that accompanied the original performance (not a film of the performance itself), a 40-page booklet with liner notes and photos, and a stereoscopic 3D View-Master reel. There will also be a limited edition version that features the soundtrack on 180-gram vinyl and a 40-page BQE-themed comic book starring the show’s hula hooping wonder women, the Hooper Heroes.”
THE BQE TRACK LISTING:
1. Prelude on the Esplanade
2. Introductory Fanfare for the Hooper Heroes
3. Movement I—In the Countenance of Kings
4. Movement II—Sleeping Invader
5. Interlude I—Dream Sequence in Subi Circumnavigation
6. Movement III—Linear Tableau with Intersecting Surprise
7. Movement IV—Traffic Shock
8. Movement V—Self-Organizing Emergent Patterns
9. Interlude II—Subi Power Waltz
10. Interlude III—Invisible Accidents
11. Movement VI—Isorhythmic Night Dance with Interchanges
12. Movement VII (Finale)—The Emperor of Centrifuge
13. Postlude—Critical Mass
[YOUTUBE=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onG8FzAYdls&feature=player_embedded]
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