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Jul 29, 2014 By Mike Hilleary Arthur Russell

On Oct. 21 AIDS charity The Red Hot Organization will release a special tribute compilation honoring the work of deceased musical artist Arthur Russell, who succumbed to the HIV virus in 1992. Featuring contributions from Blood Orange, Hot Chip, Phosphorescent, Glen Hansard, Cults, Jose Gonzalez, Devendra Banhart, Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry, one of the collection’s highlighted covers comes from Sufjan Stevens and his rendition of Russell’s track “A Little Lost.”

In a statement Stevens says, “I like ‘A Little Lost’ because it’s all about kissing. I love kissing. If I could kiss all day, I would. I can’t stop thinking about kissing. I like kissing more than sex because there’s no end to it. You can kiss forever. You can kiss yourself into oblivion. You can kiss all over the body. You can kiss yourself to sleep. And when you wake up, you can’t stop thinking about kissing. Dammit, I can’t get anything done because I’m so busy thinking about kissing. Kissing is madness! But it’s absolute paradise, if you can find a good kisser. Arthur’s music is all over the place, but most of it seems to be about embracing darkness (loneliness) and ambiguity (confusion) with the biggest bear hug in the world. Catharsis! He didn’t give a shit about fads or fashion even as he was influenced by popular music, club music, and all that shitty art music at the Kitchen. He kind of cobbled it all together to create his own diverse musical language, He was funny as shit (a wordsmith, a master of the innuendo), but also dead serious (and blunt) about the deepness of his feelings, unafraid to express affection in his songs, without pandering or cliche. Arthur was real as shit. You can’t fake realness.”

Click below to listen to the cover.

(www.sufjan.com)