Today, Sufjan Stevens unveils the Luca Guadagnino-directed video for “Tell Me You Love Me” from The Ascension today. Sufjan previously collaborated with the celebrated director for his 2018 film Call Me By Your Name.
Guadagino says:
“The aching feeling of loving and wanting to be loved, the mystery of bodies that clash, the uncanny aspects of nature, the sublime music poetry and voice of Sufjan—all this went into this video that I am proud to have made with the collaboration of two more great artists, Alessio Bolzoni and Celia Hempton.”
Luca Guadagnino is a screenwriter, director and producer. Born in Palermo, Italy, he grew up in Ethiopia. He lives in Milan.
The Ascension, Sufjan’s eighth studio album, was released in September on Asthmatic Kitty Records and continues to receive critical acclaim:
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Best Albums of 2020, #1 (Jon Pareles)
“The Ascension…sounds gigantic. It should. It speaks to a convergence of
crises: romantic, political, spiritual, existential.”
NPR
“Stevens’ music delivers the jolt of encountering this life force in its raw,
factory-unprocessed form and realizing there is not all that much
difference between its seemingly competing varieties.”
LOS ANGELES TIMES
“…a furious and densely arranged electro-folk album about what he views as the
‘diseased’ state of American culture in the age of Trump.”
VULTURE
“The highs are stratospheric…”
THE NATION
“An album that’s as gorgeous as it is resigned. More than anything, The Ascension is of its time. It’s an expertly crafted exploration of frustration by a master of his art. And by God, it’s beautiful. I haven’t been able to listen to anything else…The Ascension isn’t quite like anything Stevens has made before. It blends his great pop instincts with a pervasive, gentle pessimism, and the mood this dissonance creates feels weirdly soothing—like giving one’s brain a bath.”
SLATE
“It’s a mature reflection on personal and social crises and how they intersect, assembled in equal parts from current sounds and from his own idiosyncratic lexicon.”
