The BQE

We were lucky enough to attend the world premiere of The BQE at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2007 - the symphonic/cinematic piece composed by Sufjan Stevens commissioned by BAM. Two years later, its release from Sufjan's label:

The official album release of The BQE follows nearly two years after its original performance at BAM, providing the songwriter (and his various collaborators) ample time to wrestle out all the thematic incarnations of the project, and to attempt an appropriation of Wagner's Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work"). The resulting album might be best described as a grand creative franchise-incorporating movie, symphony, comic book, dissertation, photography, graphic design, and a 3-D Viewmaster® reel-in which a songwriter's interrogation of one of New York's ugliest landmarks expands athletically to forums and formulas outside of the song itself. In fact, the BQE is everything but a song.

Makes me love Brooklyn even more. via Pitchfork