Emerging from a long break from the music industry, Lancaster singer-songwriter Denison Witmer returns this year with new music, produced by longtime friend Sufjan Stevens. The ten-song, folk-pop collection titled Anything At All is a shimmering reflection of domesticity, and the expansiveness of family life. It is also the pair’s first in-depth collaboration, after decades of friendship going back 20-plus years to Witmer’s time touring with Stevens. On this album, Stevens is involved on every level from production to inspiration.
The new album began in 2022, with Witmer sharing COVID lockdown-era sketches with Stevens. After an initial round of recording at Stevens’ studio in upstate New York, Witmer traveled to Seattle to lay down more tracks with Andy Park. And even then there was more to do, with Stevens adding his signature lush arrangements of vocal harmonies, strings, and woodwinds. “We had so much fun just being in each other’s company,” said Witmer in a press release. “Even though the motivation of the project was to make a record, it became as much about the process as it was the outcome. It was a nice reminder to keep moving forward… to keep working on the things that inspire me with people that inspire me.”
Though it’s Denison Witmer’s project, there’s no denying Anything At All is a Sufjan record as well. Songs like the softly plucked, piano-enforced “Making Love” and gently strummed “Confessions” sound like they narrowly missed the cut for Stevens’ latest record Javelin. The transition of sparse, poignant instrumentation to swelling, enveloping electronic glow of sound is an unmistakable Sufjan touch. But swapping themes of tender yearning for contentedness, Witmer offers humble insight in the plain spoken messages of Anything At All.
“I like the simplicity of the songs he wrote, how they’re mostly about domestic life, family life, housekeeping etc,” reflects Stevens. “And yet there’s a lot of spiritual and emotional insight too. The songs have a nice balance of the sacred and mundane. You get a good sense of how a hammer or a postcard might come to represents something more transcendent. Denison’s songs find a lot of wisdom in the everyday routine of things.”
In exchange for his time spent on Anything At All, Witmer built Stevens a dining room table. “I never made a ton of money,” said Witmer. “I quickly learned that if I wanted something nice, the best way to get it was to build it myself. I love that I have all of these pieces of our friendship timeline in [Stevens’] home… I see how they hold up and change over the years and I make little adjustments to the way I build the next things. Making music with him feels the same way.”
The leading track of the album, “Focus Ring,” is out now; it was preceded by “Older And Free.” Listen to both below; the whole album releases via Stevens’ Asthmatic Kitty label on February 14th.