Album Review: Sufjan Stevens, Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly & James McAlister - Planetarium

Planetarium is a 75-minute exploration through the grandeur of our solar system from a distinguished gaggle of musos, including Bryce Dessner of The National.

Although Stevens' falsetto floats ethereally like a one man choir at times and Nico Muhly's hypnotic piano lines gently cascade away, Dessner's contributions are pretty hard to spot. There's the affecting Mercury and a few alluring instrumentals — like ghostly drone piece Black Energy and the seven trombone pile-up Mars — but other parts drift by like an overly long journey.