'Delusion' in Germany: Read. Look. (Part Two) (UPDATED)

Again: the titles in bold take you to the original articles (written in German), the English titles after the = signs link to their translation into English by Google. All links open in new windows.


Dresden:

• Traum ohne Deutung und mit Transformationen
  = Dream Without Meaning and with Transformations
  (Matthias Zwarg / Freie Presse)

• UPDATE: Begegnung mit der Performance-Künstlerin Laurie Anderson vor ihrem Auftritt im Festspielhaus Hellerau
  = Encounter with Performance Artist Laurie Anderson before Her Appearance at Festspielhaus Hellerau
  (Dresdner Neuesten Nachrichten)

Kassel / documenta Archiv:

• Laurie Anderson zeigt "delusion"
  = Laurie Anderson Presents 'Delusion'
  (Hessischer Rundfunk online)

• Visionen und Erinnerungen - Laurie Andersons "Delusion"
  = Visions and Memories - Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion
  (Kurt U. Heldmann / 24pr.de - with photos under the title 'Fotostrecke')

• documenta-Archiv feiert Laurie Anderson - Pionierin der Träume
  = Documenta Archive Celebrates Laurie Anderson - Pioneer of Dreams
  (Gaby Sohl / die tageszeitung)

• Auftritt Laurie Anderson
  = Laurie Anderson's Performance
  (Dirk Schwarze - with photos of the public conversation of May 29th)
  

Laurie Anderson in Hofgeismar / Kassel, Germany, May 2011

(photo by Dirk Schwarze)

• Wo die Sterne funkelten
  = Where the Stars Twinkled
  (Mark-Christian von Busse / Hessische/Niedersächsische Allgemeine Zeitung)

• Große Themen, kleine Episoden, kluge Gedanken
  = Big Issues, Small Episodes, Intelligent Thoughts
  (Göttinger Tageblatt)

• UPDATE: Auf der dunklen Seite des Mondes
  = On the Dark Side of the Moon
  (Gaby Sohl / die Tageszeitung)

• UPDATE: Laurie Anderson und wir in Kassel
  = Laurie Anderson and Us in Kassel
  (framboise / Katzenblog - another review and more photos from the public conversation of May 29)

• UPDATE: Mediaartbase – Das erste digitale Kunst-Archiv
  = Mediaartbase - The First Digital Art Archive
  arte tv's reportage, featuring interview excerpts with Laurie Anderson, saved for posterity on my YouTube channel:

'Delusion' in the UK: Read (UPDATED)

Reviews of 'Delusion' from Brighton, UK:

• Reviews: Brighton Festival – Laurie Anderson – Delusion
  (Andrew Kay, Latest7 Magazine)

• Laurie Anderson Mused on Memory & Then Broke New Ground in Sound @ Brighton Festival
  (Howard Young / The Brighton Magazine - this article is a blend of a review of the performance and the public conversation with Laurie Anderson the night before the concert)

• Laurie Anderson, Brighton Dome Concert Hall, May 26
  (Simon Lancaster / The Argus)

• Minimalist Magic: Laurie Anderson at the Brighton Dome, May 2011
  (Ian Hodgson)

• What do John Cale & Laurie Anderson have in common?
  (Louise Halvardsson)

• UPDATE: Laurie Anderson: Delusion and In Conversation (Gig-going Adventures Contd.)
  (Gavin Burrows)

What Laurie Anderson Sees in the Mirror...

In her own words of wizdom: Laurie Anderson reflects on her appearance in last Saturday's edition of Guardian*.



* Along with a ten-year-old portrait? Really??

"Make your travel plans now."

I'm not sure if there exists a phrase like that in English but I can't help saying it: if the following didn't exist, it should have been invented.

What the hell, you're asking, Dearreader?

Laurie Anderson as the voice of a planetarium. For real. Holy cr*p, this is so her. Me wants to go to Chicago, I mean, right now (hoping the show is still running). (No, of course it's not in the programme anymore.)

This video is a trailer for Time/Space, Adler Planetarium's animated show on the past and the future of the Cosmos, produced in 2005, narrated by Laurie Anderson:

(extra: a press release of the show from a previous version of Laurie's website)

When the Musician Meets the Explorer

"For me, art is about being able to see something or hear something in a really concentrated, focused way. It's not the stuff you put into museums. [...] To me, art is about being able to pay attention to the ocean sound that we live in, to start with, and the incredible things that we're seeing. And artists draw your attention to those things."

(Laurie Anderson at the Explorers Club in NYC, April 2011)

The Explorers Club uploaded their video of 'Music & Exploration – The Avant-garde Meets Exploration', a conversation between Laurie Anderson and David Rothenberg, recorded on April 25th, 2011:

The topics of the discussion were (amongst others): why animals sing, Laurie's concert for dogs in Sydney, researching dolphins' "talk", Lolabelle's illness and music therapy (alas, she has recently passed away :( ), the Estuarium ("it's great taking a dog to a fish museum" - L. A.), Laurie's rage against mp3 ("a horrible solution [for compressing audio data], crushing music to nothing"), a moving story about parrots' musical memory in a Vietnamese village; regret, image interpretation and self-expression - and many more.

'Delusion' in Germany: Look (Updated)

Laurie Anderson performing 'Delusion'

Berlin, Germany, May 2011

photo by Barbara Muerdter / Popkontext

More photos from Berlin:

• by Barbara Muerdter at Popkontext
• by Charlotte Jäckel at [030] Magazin Berlin
• by Michael Huebner at Flickr
• by Frank Hoensch at Gettyimages
• NEW: by Christian Behring

'Delusion' in Germany: Read (Part One)

Reactions to Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' in Germany so far: the titles in bold take you to the original articles (written in German), the English titles after the = signs link to their translation into English by Google. All links open in new windows.


Berlin:

• Still und klar: Laurie Anderson in der Volksbühne
  = Calm and Clear: Laurie Anderson at Volksbühne
  (Volker Lüke / Der Tagesspiegel; roll down to the Pop section in the article)

• Historischer Applaus – Laurie Anderson in Berlin
  = Historical Applause - Laurie Anderson in Berlin
  (Julia Zange / SoundsLikeMe; for the time it's available only in Google's webcache)

• Laurie Anderson fragt: Habt ihr mich jemals geliebt? (Für diesen Multimediamurks jedenfalls nicht)
  = Laurie Anderson Asks: Did You Ever Really Love Me? (Well, for This Multimedia Hodge Podge, Not a Lot)
  (Markus Schneider / Berliner Zeitung)

• So war's: Laurie Anderson
  = That's How It Was: Laurie Anderson
  (Charlotte Jäckel / [030] Magazin Berlin)

Hamburg:

• Träumerei zu Geigenklängen
  = Rêverie for Violin
  (Dagmar Leischow / Schleswig-Holsteinischer Zeitungsverlag)

• Welt aus Wörtern
  = World Made of Words
  (Robert Matthies / die tageszeitung)

• Mit Laurie Anderson in eine Klang-Bild-Welt schweben
  = Floating with Laurie Anderson into a World of Sounds and Images
  (Heinrich Oehmsen / Hamburger Abendblatt)

• Eine Pauschalreise ins Bewusstsein
  = All-Inclusive Travel into Awareness
  (Heinrich Oehmsen / Hamburger Abendblatt)
  

• Geschichten
  = Stories
  (mr.boredom / mr.boredom's blog)

• Adieu Verblendung
  = Adieu to Delusion
  (Stefan Hentz / Die Welt)

• Laurie Anderson und ihre Welt aus rätselhaften Bildern und Klängen
  = Laurie Anderson and Her World of Enigmatic Images and Sounds
  (Hamburger Abendblatt)

• Andächtiges Staunen und Lauschen - Laurie Anderson auf Kampnagel/Hamburg
  = Reverently Marveling at and Listening to Laurie Anderson at Kampnagel/Hamburg
  (Holger Kistenmacher / Unser Lübeck)
  

Beruf: _ *

"Ich kann machen was ich will." **

(Laurie Anderson on the benefits of her career choice to be a multimedia artist)

Zdf.kulturpalast's coverage of Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' in Germany - after Berlin / before Hamburg:

* Beruf = occupation
** "[I] can do whatever [I] feel like."

HHugs.

Poster for Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion'

Hamburg, Germany, May 2011

photo by Mnemosyne

Eine Kulturikone in Krems

A short reportage about / interview with Laurie Anderson in Krems an der Donau, Austria (attention: it's overdubbed in German):

Studiogast bei radioeins

Yesterday Laurie Anderson was the guest of radio eins' studio in Potsdam / Berlin, Germany:

• German-English interview with Laurie Anderson, radio eins (audio length: 15 mins 23 secs)

"Here We Go", She Said (and She Meant It Literally)

"From a program recorded on September 14, 1981, Charles Amirkhanian gets a demonstration of the Eventide Clockworks Harmonizer from Laurie Anderson. The Harmonizer is the piece of equipment that Anderson has used, with such great effect, to lower the pitch of her voice in real time, during her concerts", says the description of Ode To Gravity's September 14, 1981 issue at archive.org.

Before that, the program also features Fenway Bergamot's first ever public appearance at the Nova Convention in 1978 (at that time he was just "a pompous blowhard" (quote from L. A.)). The recording, titled 'Song from America on the Move', a two-part performance piece by Laurie Anderson and Julia Heyward, can be found on the LP 'The Dial-A-Poem Poets: The Nova Convention'; Laurie's part was later titled as 'The Language of the Future' (in 'United States Live I-IV.').

• 00:45 - 07:02 The Language of the Future 

• 07:03 - 09:23 interview

"Deals with the Spiritual Issues..." - the Transcript

Here's the transcript of 'Refiguring the Spiritual', a conversation between Laurie Anderson and the public on the 10th of February, 2011 at Columbia University. (I have already linked the audio recording of the conversation on this blog.)

Only in Case You've Got 25 Minutes. Seriously.

May 1st 2011: Laurie Anderson's dramatic reading of James Salter’s short story, "Raphael" - a trademark andersonite multimedia presentation held amid Julião Sarmento's exhibition "Artists and Writers/House and Home" at the Parrish Art Museum, Southampton whatever blablabla.


Now...

1. Lights off.
2. A [...] of [...] at hand. (You name it.)
3. Play button.
4. Full screen.
5. Enjoy.

Bringing 'Delusion' to the Old Continent

Listen to and read a short interview with Laurie Anderson who prepares for her European tour with 'Delusion':

Meanwhile, on the GRIT...

"I would love "explorer" but on my passport it just says "artist". [...] I try to just be a good journalist, really, and look at what's going on. [...] I'm a storyteller. I'm not tapdancing around, I don't do that. Maybe I'm fooling myself. Hm..."

(Laurie Anderson's attempts of self-description to Laura Flanders, 2011)

Nostalgia, techno humiliation, art and politics, alter-egos as ways of escape, Laurie Anderson's saddest musical experience and many-many more in Laura Flanders' recent interview on GRIT tv:

P. S.: Hm. Looks like the original Talking Stick is still in the hands of Homeland Security.

Hänsel und Gretel in Krems

'Transitory Life' in Krems, Austria, May 2011

photo by Florian Schulte

Hänsel und Gretel gibt es wirklich
Und sie leben in Berlin
Sie arbeitet als Cocktailbedienung
Er hatte eine Rolle in einem Fassbinder-Film
Und nachts sitzen sie da, trinken Schnaps und Gin
Und sie sagt: Hänsel, du ziehst mich echt runter.
Und er sagt: Gretel, du kannst wirklich ein Miststück sein.
Er sagt: ich habe mein Leben mit unserem dummen Märchen vergeudet,
während meine Liebe immer nur der bösen Hexe galt.

Sie sagt: Was ist Geschichte?
Und er sagt: Geschichte ist ein Engel, der rückwärts in die Zukunft geweht wird.
Er sagt: Geschichte ist ein Trümmerhaufen,
Und der Engel will zurückgehen, um die Dinge wieder in Ordnung bringen,
Dinge reparieren, die zerbrochen sind.
Aber da kommt ein Sturm aus dem Paradies,
Und der Sturm weht den Engel zurück in die Zukunft.
Und dieser Sturm, dieser Sturm heißt Fortschritt.

German translation of Laurie Anderson's 'The Dream before'

- as heard in Krems, Austria in May 2011

Thanks, Angelika, for the help!

UPDATED: More from Krems

Two Four more excerpts of 'Transitory Life' in Krems an der Donau, Austria:

First, the frantic instrumental ending of the concert:

And 'Flow', the mesmerizing reprise violin solo:

Fenway Bergamot's first section: a specialized German-Austrian version ("should I buy a second BMW?") of 'Mambo and Bling' - you'll appreciate it especially if you're interested in the German translation of the piece since the video features mostly the subtitles on the background screen:

'Hey Ah', the story of the old Cree Indian, plus Loscha, the 'Ugly One with the Jewels':

UPDATE#2: Here's Donaufestival's official press photo album of the 5th of May - click below for more photos of Laurie's performance:

Laurie Anderson performing 'Transitory Life'

Krems an der Donau, Austria, May 2011

photo by Florian Schulte

Loscha in Krems

May 2011: Laurie Anderson tells the story of the Ugly One with the Jewels in Krems an der Donau, Austria. Along with German translation in the background:

From Krems with Luv

Donaufestival, May 2011

Krems an der Donau, Austria

photos by Mnemosyne

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Music in Poetry. In Photos

PEN Festival 2011: Poetry: The Second Skin

Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

By clicking on the photo above, you can flip through an extensive photo gallery of the Poetry section of this year's PEN Festival. The event, titled The Second Skin, took place on April 29, 2011 in New York City, with the main theme of "exploring the porous borders between poetry and music" - quite suitably to its curator and emcee.