Slow Dakota is the brainchild of Indiana-native, PJ Sauerteig, who started the project as a sophomore at Columbia University (2012). During his college years, Sauerteig released a stream of highly conceptual "art rock" albums, with sporadic live shows around New York City. (PopMatters recently named his second album, Bürstner and the Baby, the "concept album of the decade"). And now, freshly graduated, Sauerteig has moved back home to Indiana, and is putting the final touches on Slow Dakota's most ambitious volume yet: The Ascension of Slow Dakota. Somewhere between baroque pop, prog rock, art rock, and classical, Slow Dakota's music is surprisingly ancient, given the youth of its creator. Born in a suburb of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Sauerteig was trained from a young age as a classical pianist. The very same piano he played as a boy (which belonged to his great grandmother) appears on nearly every Slow Dakota album - and is the musical bedrock of his compositions. And while he remains the mastermind of Slow Dakota, Sauerteig's albums and live shows are filled with a constantly evolving set of musicians - which includes his younger sister, Sarah. At Columbia, Sauerteig studied Creative Writing and Psychology; his literary studies also took him to Paris, and to Cambridge. (Sauerteig has published poetry in 4x4, Quarto, The Columbia Review, Profane Journal, and others). Sauerteig's background in literature is, in many ways, the key to understanding his lyrics - which brim with allusions to Kafka, The Bible, Whitman, and others. In 2014, Sauerteig also founded Massif Records - a boutique indie record label based in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Massif releases Slow Dakota's music, and the music of several collaborators, including Proud Father.