‘The Ascension’ is the long-awaited follow up to Sufjan’s 2015 album, ‘Carrie and Lowell’, and is the eighth studio album from the singer, songwriter and composer. It is a salient collection of fifteen pop songs that, with sweeping editorial aplomb, interrogate the integrity and sustainability of our human existence. The album seeks to confront the psychic trauma of our current apocalyptic condition by highlighting the disparity between survival and despair - while trying to maintain a path towards truth and light. Sufjan recorded almost everything on ‘The Ascension’ himself on his computer using a drum machine and a handful of synthesizers, his goal clear from the start: Keep it simple. Keep it real. Keep it moving.