“It takes a special kind of mind / If you’re gonna learn to be a clockmaker,” Lancaster, Pennsylvania’s Denison Witmer sings on his latest album of wonderfully rich songs, called Anything At All. He’s a songwriter long in his game, who landed on Sufjan Stevens‘ label Asthmatic Kitty around 2010, and he’s written a slew of album with songs that often deal simply and honestly, with domestic and spiritual themes, something that shows up in spades on his latest release.

The kicker on this album, perhaps a result of Sufjan’s illness recently and his shift to a more “production” role, (most notably, working recently with the likes of John Legend on his successful children’s album, My Favorite Dream,) is that Sufjan fills out the album with whistles and vocals, strings, guitar, and horns, to make this feel like a new album not just by Denison Witmer, but by Sufjan as well.

It thrillingly shares a hi-fi production quality with Sufjan’s latest album, Javelin, and Denison Witmer’s gentle but strong voice is a wonderful conduit of the joint venture. Denison recently shared a video of the song, “Shade I’ll Never See,” (“I’m busy planting trees / Of shade I’ll never see / I’m picturing / A world without me,”) on his Instagram in it’s early stages, and what Sufjan does with the album is add a magical quality to the song, only Sufjan could add. “Life in the color of Paul Klee,” is how Denison puts it on his song, “Confessions,” and if you know Klee’s work, that captures the albums colorful and whimsical nature perfectly.

The absolute charm and the success of the album is not in Sufjan’s production alone, however, but in the collaboration between the two artistic souls. Denison lives in a rural city in Pennsylvania, and has somehow flown under the radar for much of his career as a songwriter. The songs, therefore, don’t have any of the hubris or temptation to glitter and gold that faces most musicians. Denison sings about “Slow Motion Snow” and reading St. Augustine’s “Confessions,” planting plants and hanging bird feeders, and everything that makes up his interesting, but decidedly non-famous life.

The big question Denison asks on the album is: “ Have I made good use of / My friendships and time?” Like many of us, he grapples with his sense of self worth, and gets “Lost In My Head,” questioning what this life is here for and how well he’s doing living it. “Nothing feels as random as the gift of life / And I hope I’m not wasting mine.” Art is valuable, I think, no matter how far the reach. And I’ve been a fan of his stuff for a long time. But there’s a good chance that this album will be planting trees of “Shade I’ll Never See” in many more bedrooms, considering his joining forces with Sufjan on this album. It’s a golden album, super beautiful, super humble.

Order Anything At All by Dennison Witmer HERE