Sufjan Stevens Previews ‘Reflections’ Ballet Score Album With ‘Ekstasis’

The music Sufjan Stevens composed for a Justin Peck-choreographed ballet will get an official studio album release with Reflections on May 19. On Tuesday, Stevens announced the release of the project performed by Timo Andres and Conor Hanick, and dropped its first single “Ekstasis.”

“Having two of them at my disposal was an exciting opportunity and gave me a real catharsis about the expansiveness of the instrument,” Stevens said in a release.

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The new song “embodies” the themes of Reflections as a whole, according to a press release. And the project — composed for duo pianists Andres and Hanick — marks the fourth time Peck and Stevens have worked together on music for ballet numbers. Their last collaboration was Principia in 2019.

“Although I’ve never taken a lesson,” he said, “the piano was my first true love.”

Stevens learned how to play piano by ear after he learned to play the oboe as a child. He played in orchestras throughout his life and would listen to classical music along with pop radio, according to a press release.

“A lot of the work that I compose is anachronistic as it doesn’t follow a genealogy of aesthetic. It can be a cornucopia of styles,” he added.

Sufjan Stevens’ Reflections tracklist:

1. Ekstasis
2. Revanche
3. Euphoros
4. Mnemosyne
5, Rodinia
6. Reflexion
7. And I Shall Come To You Like A Stormtrooper In Drag Serving Imperial Realness

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