Singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens has announced a new studio album titled The Ascension, which is set to be released via Asthmatic Kitty Records on September 25. A new single titled “America” will be released on July 3 at 9:00 a.m. ET, right before the independence day holiday and will be accompanied by a music video.

This album follows the collaborative project Aporia made between Stevens and his step father, fellow Asthmatic Kitty Founder Lowell Brams. This project was a largely instrumental new age record filled with plenty of ambient tones that channel its optimism throughout, in stark contrast with Stevens’ most recent studio album release Carrie & Lowell. Aporia was supported by the singles “The Runaround” and “Climb That Mountain,” while the former song was accompanied by a music video.

Carrie & Lowell takes its name from Stevens’ mother and his aforementioned step father, as it documents the pain he experienced from his mother’s passing and absence in his life. His mother suffered from an array of mental disorders and substance abuse, abandoning her son at the age of one year old, although he did make sporadic visits during the summers.

“Some of the best music comes out of the greatest pain. From the psychological anguish that begot Pink Floyd’s, The Wall, to the physical and sexual abuse that guitarist Pete Townshend suffered and then represented in The Who’s blind, death and dumb protagonist, Tommy, there are plenty of examples. If this maxim holds true, then new folk hero, Sufjan Stevens’ new and seventh album, Carrie and Lowell, should be beautiful. And it is,” mxdwn reviewer Phoebe Fico wrote. 

The Ascension track list

1. Make Me An Offer I Cannot Refuse
2. Run Away With Me
3. Video Game
4. Lamentations
5. Tell Me You Love Me
6. Die Happy
7. Ativan
8. Ursa Major
9. Landslide
10. Gilgamesh
11. Death Star
12. Goodbye To All That
13. Sugar
14. The Ascension
15. America

Photo Credit: Sharon Alagna