The BQE (soundtrack)

The BQE
Soundtrack album by Sufjan Stevens
Released	October 20, 2009
Genre	Avant-garde electro-classical[1]
Length	40:16
Label	Asthmatic Kitty
Producer	Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens chronology
Songs for Christmas (2006) The BQE (2009) All Delighted People EP (2010)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.9/10[2]
Metacritic	73/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Drowned in Sound	7/10[5]
NME	9/10[6]
Pitchfork	7.4/10[7]
Slant Magazine	[8]

The BQE is a mixed-medium artistic exploration of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway by Sufjan Stevens. The project originally manifested in the form of a live show, performed on November 1–3, 2007. The show consisted of an original film, directed and written by Stevens, accompanied by an orchestra performing a live soundtrack.

The album recording was made after the rehearsals for the show. It was recorded live during a one-day session in Legacy Studios' A509 orchestral suite (since closed and demolished) with most of the group in the same large room together.

A multimedia package of The BQE was released on October 20, 2009. The set consists of a CD of the show's soundtrack, a DVD of Brooklyn-Queen Expressway footage that accompanied the original performance (not a film of the performance itself), a 40-page booklet with liner notes and photos, and a stereoscopic 3D View-Master reel. There is also a limited edition version that features the soundtrack on 180-gram vinyl and a 40-page BQE-themed comic book starring the show's hula-hooping wonder women, The Hooper Heroes.

Regarding The BQE, Stevens said:

I intended to create a non-personal, non-narrative piece. I tried to reduce my own personal investment as much as possible, and I refused to incorporate one of my strengths, which is the song. I was relinquishing my greatest weapon.^[9]