Sufjan Stevens has shared two new tracks from his collaborative album with Angelo De Augustine, ‘A Beginner’s Mind’, due out later this month.

The two songs, ‘Cimmerian Shade’ and ‘You Give Death A Bad Name’, continue the album’s overarching theme of music inspired by films the pair watched while writing together.

‘Cimmerian Shade’ is written and performed from the perspective of Silence Of The Lambs antagonist Buffalo Bill, while ‘You Give Death A Bad Name’ is influenced by horror film Night Of The Living Dead.

“Many authors have emotional attachments to the characters they create. But in this instance, I was interested in how a character felt about being created. In my imagination I was giving consciousness to someone else’s creation,” De Augustine said of ‘Cimmerian Shade’.

“The song is essentially a dialogue between creation and creator that seeks to find understanding to some of the same questions that we ask ourselves about existence, free will, fate, purpose, guidance and if anyone or anything out there is listening or cares.”

Listen to the tracks below:

‘A Beginner’s Mind’ is set for release September 24 through Asthmatic Kitty. The 14-track album also contains the previously released singles ‘Back To Oz’, ‘Fictional California’, ‘Reach Out’ and ‘Olympus’.

The album follows on from Stevens’ recent five-volume instrumental album ‘Convocations’ and his earlier record ‘The Ascension’ last year.