Suf-er Sweet News

From a recent press release:

For the first time in over a year, Sufjan Stevens is going on tour, bringing with him a talented group of musicians and friends including a small string ensemble and brass section. They will perform a repertoire of familiar songs from Seven Swans, Michigan and Illinois in a new symphonic context... Sufjan would also like to take this opportunity on tour to debut you a few new pieces.

(Ahem... excuse my temporary fan-boying) New context? Do I feel a live release coming on? This sounds like a can't-miss show. I for one thought he would be always be the kind of artist who performs his most current material exclusively (as previous tours have demonstrated), so I'm really happy that this will be a full retrospective AND include new tunes. I wonder if he's leaning towards more of a string-dominated sound for future states records?

I also expect that he will annouce his plans for the next state records (EPs???) before the start of this tour, since the new tunes may inevitably give it away.