Sufjan Stevens may be taking an indefinite break from releasing new music, but we haven’t heard the last of him quite yet. The singer-songwriter’s label Asthmatic Kitty has announced Stevens recorded a cover of Nick Drake’s “Pink Moon” for an upcoming book of the same name by artist Marcel Dzama.
The cover will be included with the special edition of Pink Moon as part of a 7-inch picture disc that also features Hannah Peel’s own take on Drake’s 1972 track. Pre-orders for the book are ongoing.
Here’s the official description:
“In Pink Moon, artist Marcel Dzama presents a raft of new works inspired by travelling through Mexico and Morocco which touch on the wonder that travel and the strange immersion in cultures aside from one’s own can so often engender. Taking visual cues from the evocative textures and colours around him, Dzama successfully captures the spirit of place, while communicating something essentially human in the experience of those places. Coming at a time of isolation, of stasis for so many, this book engages the imagination in a broad, borderless project, allowing the viewer access to the thrill of discovery and the excitement of the new.”
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Released off Drake’s 1972 album of the same name, “Pink Moon” gave his music a whole new audience several decades after his death when it was featured in a 1999 Volkswagen commercial. Other artists who have covered the song include Rostam and Beck.
Earlier this month, Stevens told WNYC that it was time for him “to take a break and step back, and just be. And listen.” He most recently released A Beginner’s Mind, a collaborative album with labelmate Angelo De Augustine, in September. Prior to that, he put out the five-volume ambient music suite, Convocations, in May. And last year, he released his eighth solo album, The Ascension, as well as a collaborative album with Lowell Brams called Aporia.
