Files on a String

The Queen of Performance in Norway

2011-11-21T15:32:00.001-05:00

Towards the end of June 2011, Laurie Anderson took a slight right on her way home from the Middle East and headed for the North. She stopped by the tiny little town of Harstad in Norway, walked right into the Kulturhus and told some adventure stories by herself on stage, accompanied by accidental fiddling and random toying around on some keyboards in-between - just another day in the life of the Queen of Performance.

She also shared some words of wisdom regarding, among others, the reason why she does not use Facebook:

Luckily, some pro photographer happened to be around and shot a couple of pictures - like this one:

"No more friends." Laurie Anderson performing 'Transitory Life'

June 23rd 2011, Harstad, Norway
photo by hennum.foto.com

On the Return of the Cultural Ambassador

2011-11-19T18:25:00.031-05:00

In June 2011 Laurie took 'Delusion' to Israel where she seems to be a welcome returning guest.

(FYI, here's "Laurie Anderson" written in Hebrew characters - took some time for me to find them in the texts but then it made my research process for reviews and all kinds of media coverage a lot easier:

לורי אנדרסון

- yeah, you should read this from right to left.)

For starters, let's see a review with photos and videos of a public conversation with artists Yali Sobol and Sigalit Landau (relax - the URL I included is the English translation of the original text):

If somebody asked her to design a religion,
she would make it all about snow.

Laurie Anderson in Tel-Aviv, Israel, June 2011
photo by Assaf Alboher

Here's an interview from an Israeli tv channel (probably named NANA10). The show is called 'London & Kirschenbaum', and the conversation took place on June 16, 2011. The interviewers were Yaron London and Assaf Amdursky. Laurie also gave the microphone over to Fenway Bergamot for a while during the interview, and gave a short demonstration of the sound of her filtered violin:

The concert in Mann Auditorium left its mark on the Israeli audience. Here's a vast bunch of reviews, translated into English via Google Translator:

Bedtime Stories - text by Guy Hajaj, photos by Dudu Azulaj
Hallucinatory Mushroom - text by Yuval Kfsoto, photos by Dana Shimoni
A Mesmerizing Storyteller - text by Idan Hguel, photo by Meir Luger
Bored to Death - text by Zahi Yeshurun
More Theatrical Than Musical - text, big photos and a video
Less Tight and Perfect Than Others, But Much Human - text by Elliot, photo by Orit Pearls (?)
Not for Music Fans - a review and a photo in Haaretz

... well, maybe they missed the stage bombs or so.

Anyway, there was at least one enthusiastic audience member who didn't mind to share some videos taken in a tender night:

The very last things you say in life...

Notes from a dream diary:

Thinking of you under the dandelions:

A story on the Moon and Fenway's section:

A story from Iceland:

The finale:

The encore:

From A'dam with Luv

2011-11-19T16:59:00.002-05:00

Laurie Anderson's Delusion was part of this year's Holland Festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Reviews of the show were mixed - some would have fancied more music, and some were just bored and wished for a little less Laurie Anderson clones in the audience. Some of the lucky ones took a walk with Laurie in the streets of Amsterdam:

Jeroen Visser and Laurie Anderson

Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 2011

Some of the other lucky ones had a close encounter of the third kind with Fenway Bergamot himself sitting in a shopping window of de Bijenkorf (big warehouse in Amsterdam's Dam Square):

Fenway Bergamot, wearing a Chaplin hat and a HollandFestival jacket,
chatted with Lieven Bertels (artistic coordinator of HollandFestival)

Fenway Bergamot happily announced his intention of

being candidate for the next President of the United States

Throwing an approving glance

at his enthusiastically cheering audience outside the shopwindow.

All photos by Mnemosyne

And, finally, a video to break your heart, too: an excerpt of the Dandelion scene from Delusion in Amsterdam:

"Alguma vez amas-me verdadeiramente?"

2011-11-14T17:02:00.003-05:00

PSA: For the sake of accuracy, I'm trying to cover all the (more-or-less) European venues which got graced by Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' during the summer of 2011.

If you read Portuguese, here is a review of 'Delusion' in Porto from June 2011. Text by Marta Ribeiro, along with some photos by Victor Fernandes. Like this one:

"That's a really good dog. I like that dog."
'Delusion' by Laurie Anderson, June 5, 2011
Casa da Música, Porto, Portugal

Retrospect 1.0: The Updated Posts

2011-11-04T20:36:00.004-04:00

First of all, I decided to update some of the previous posts. I'm doing it this way since I wouldn't want to break up the one-post-one-topic consistency which, more or less, characterized the posts of Files on a String in the past. It's not handy, it's not convenient but it's for the sake of logic (and, um, proportion, whatevs). So, here is the list:

'Delusion' in the UK: Read - a review of 'Transitory Life' and the public conversation in Brighton (UK) added

'Delusion' in Germany: Read. Look. (Part Two) - one review from Dresden, two more from Kassel / Hofgeismar, plus a video with interview excerpts recorded in Kassel added

El sistema de l'ase i la pastanaga - a photo gallery from Girona (Spain) added

Λόρι Αντερσον - a photo gallery from Athens (Greece) added

Thank You, 16 Yeses.

2011-11-04T18:37:00.001-04:00

I just want to say thanks... so, thanks.

Thanks to those who voted. I think I know some of you. What an honour.

And to you whom I don't: it's an even bigger pleasure for me and hereby I'm encouraging you to feel free to say hi anytime.

Your yeses did mean some kind of support / encouragement for me and that it's really worth it to start this over. Which is really not a problem since there's such a big amount of great stuff lying around, waiting to be discovered (and, um, appropriately, um, appreciated).

Soon.

xxxxoooo

Look. Look.

2011-10-20T16:22:00.001-04:00

Welcome, Visitor.

You are visiting a blog that, despite its ambitious first year, got abruptly abandoned some months ago.

If you happened to have gotten here while looking for an up-to-date selection of information sources collected from around the world wide web on Laurie Anderson (the multimedia artist. Not the writer who, by the way, has an extra middle name - Laurie Halse Anderson - no, this is not her), and if you think the world needs ~~another Laurie Anderson clone~~ a blog like this to be revived, please let me know by casting your vote in the poll on the right side.

Lvoe,

M.

Λόρι Αντερσον (UPDATED)

2011-06-08T17:40:00.002-04:00

That bunch of characters in the title is the Greek translation of "Laurie Anderson" - just my sad attempt to be in style since Laurie performs 'Delusion' in Athens tonight ("one of my favourite places in the whole world", she says). In a recent interview made by ESC TV (Greek tv show) she recalls her memories of working on the 2004 Olympics ceremony in Athens, and talks about 'Delusion' and her alter-ego Fenway Bergamot:

UPDATE: a bunch of photos of 'Delusion' in Athens where Fenway Bergamot's section had an extra reference to the then-current protests on Athens' Syntagma square as a special one-time update (thanks for the vigilance, timeiswide!).

'Delusion' in Athens, Greece
Badminton Theater, June 8, 2011
photo by Alexandra Katsarou

More Talk Radio from Spain

2011-06-06T16:49:00.001-04:00

Today's edition of Fluido rosa ( = "pink fluid"), Radio 3 Espagna's magazine about music and contemporary art features a different cut of the interview aired couple of days earlier on Radio 3, only this time with no Spanish overdubbing (and with additional parts not heard in the previous programme).

For starters Laurie performed two viola solos, then talked about 'Delusion' and about the making of 'Nothing in My Pockets', her audio diary created for French radio in 2003 (there's also an excerpt of it in the programme). Towards the end of the interview she also touched upon something that sounds, hm, quite electrifying to Mnemosyne's (and probably to some of this blog's readers') ears, namely:

"I think probably I'll put my archive on the web at some point. I'm just trying to figure out now how to do that - both the visual and the audio stuff."

(Laurie Anderson, June 2011)

Laurie's part is between 42:00 and 1:05:00 into the programme:

El sistema de l'ase i la pastanaga (UPDATED)

2011-06-04T15:44:00.002-04:00

Click to the picture below for a short video coverage of Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' in Girona, Spain:

the donkey-and-the-carrot system in Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion'

Girona, Spain, June 2011

UPDATE: bel bosCk Studio!'s surrealistically stylized photo set from Girona (click to the photo):

It's always raining in her dreams

Ilusión o engaño?

2011-06-01T12:57:00.001-04:00

"It's in-between."

(Laurie Anderson's answer to the question in the title, which is "illusion or deception?"

in English translation and refers to the meaning of 'Delusion')

Listen to this morning's interview with Laurie Anderson on Radio 3 Espagna (it's ~~partly~~ mostly :( overdubbed in Spanish):

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

2011-05-31T11:33:00.004-04:00

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)

2011-05-30T17:04:00.001-04:00

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...

2011-05-30T16:10:00.002-04:00

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."

2011-05-30T09:45:00.002-04:00

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

2011-05-27T04:30:00.003-04:00

"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)

2011-05-25T07:37:00.003-04:00

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)

2011-05-25T07:23:00.005-04:00

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: _ *

2011-05-24T18:57:00.001-04:00

"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.

2011-05-23T07:29:00.001-04:00

Poster for Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion'

Hamburg, Germany, May 2011

photo by Mnemosyne

Eine Kulturikone in Krems

2011-05-18T15:04:00.002-04:00

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

Studiogast bei radioeins

2011-05-17T18:57:00.002-04:00

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)

2011-05-16T05:27:00.001-04:00

"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

2011-05-16T04:42:00.001-04:00

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.

2011-05-13T15:53:00.001-04:00

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...

Lights off.
A [...] of [...] at hand. (You name it.)
Play button.
Full screen.
Enjoy.

Bringing 'Delusion' to the Old Continent

2011-05-13T13:47:00.001-04:00

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

Meanwhile, on the GRIT...

2011-05-10T06:20:00.002-04:00

"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

2011-05-10T04:35:00.002-04:00

'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

2011-05-07T04:15:00.005-04:00

~~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

2011-05-07T03:54:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-07T03:48:00.002-04:00

Donaufestival, May 2011

Krems an der Donau, Austria

photos by Mnemosyne

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Music in Poetry. In Photos

2011-05-01T16:32:00.001-04:00

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.

Scenes from 'Delusion'

2011-04-30T13:37:00.002-04:00

Detail of Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' postcard set

Photo by Darek J.

Click to the picture above for a photo gallery of the 'Delusion' postcard set: scenes from the performance selected, captioned and signed by Laurie Anderson. Photos taken and kindly provided for the blog by Darek. Thanks a lot!

Storytelling in the North

2011-04-29T17:35:00.002-04:00

October 2008: while passing along the shores of Canada on board of Grigory Mikheev (an arctic research vessel), Laurie Anderson tells a story of an old Cree Indian man singing the forgotten song of his fathers':

FYI: This video is an excerpt of the documentary film titled 'Burning Ice', directed by Peter Gilbert.

The whole film is available for free at Snagfilms.

Duh.

2011-04-29T17:15:00.002-04:00

Cooking hot dogs via electrocution?

Er, sounds familiar.

The Charlie Rose Interview, 2003

2011-04-29T17:02:00.001-04:00

"She does everything. She writes. She paints. She does photography. She sculpts. There's nothing she can't do. She is the absolute perfect person to go up there because she could come back to you and could put it in any kind of media you wanted."

(Lou Reed on Laurie Anderson's artistry-in-residence at NASA)

In May 2003 Laurie Anderson and Lolabelle joined Lou Reed at Charlie Rose's interview table (apparently to everybody's satisfaction). Their conversation rambled from 'NYC Man' (Lou Reed's then-recently released retrospective song collection), through Andy Warhol, to the aspects of the relationship between Lou and Laurie.

(FYI: This video had been hosted by Google and was 'rescued' to YouTube since Google has recently gave up video hosting.)

Current State of Mind of an Universalkünstlerin*

2011-04-29T06:10:00.001-04:00

"Today I'm working on a short little poem that I've been thinking about, I have a drawing to finish, and I have a little projection work. This is the kind of hell my life is: doesn't one piece relate to the other one that much. I mean maybe that's great but sometimes it feels little disconnecting. On the other hand, that's just the way things are."

"Do I think art can change the world? I don't have any idea. Politicians can change politics - so can artists? I don't know. I'm a little bit pessimistic at the moment, to tell you the truth."

"[...] "The triumph of capitalism, here it is. Okay. One thing to do: get famous, get rich. That's the game. Good luck and see you later." - That's really harsh, and it's in every field in many ways. Artists are the same thing: we are encouraged to compete rather than to cooperate. And that's not a kind of world I dream of living in."

"I'm a journalist at heart. I like to try to see how things really work-- not make it up, not fantasize. That's a very hard thing to tell a story that is true. It's easy to find a good punchline. But everybody knows that most punchlines smell a little bad... they're clever, okay, but if you really try to tell a story: our lives are so messy. They don't have good punchlines, they don't have ways that they end very neatly. I think a lot of people, myself included, would like to find a way to see the world really clearly, not to somebody's punchline or somebody's story but really how do other people do it."

(Four examples of Laurie Anderson's current state of mind, mid April 2011)

Laurie Anderson @ Canal Street, April 2011

Photo by Christian Lehner

Austrian radio FM4 has recently aired Christian Lehner's interview with Laurie Anderson on the occasion of Laurie's upcoming live appearance at the Donaufestival in Krems-an-der-Donau, Austria: on the 5th of May 2011 she will perform 'Transitory Life', a retrospective collection of her past stories.

The conversation touched on subjects like New York City in the 1970s vs. 2010s, record charts, art and politics, the making process of the 'Homeland' album, the linguistics behind its title, the current state of mind of New York City, last year's concert for dogs in Sydney and the origins of 'O Superman' and 'Another Day in America'.

The Laurie Anderson Spezialstunde** was part of 'New York State of Mind', FM4's interview series "on individuals who set up the Big Apple a little crown". More info on the conversation with the Universalkünstlerin (basically the German translation of the interview) and some photos of the session can be found here.

You can listen to the whole programme in FM4's online archive until the 4th of May:

New York State of Mind, Issue #3: Laurie Anderson (audio length: 54 mins 8 secs, file size: 49.5 MB)

(FYI: don't worry if you missed the programme in the online archive: stay tuned for a stripped-down-and-cut-and-edited version of the interview here.)

* universal artist
** special hour

Mabou Mines Benefit

2011-04-28T18:16:00.001-04:00

Speaking about recent public appearances: Laurie Anderson invited Fenway Bergamot to perform at the Mabou Mines Benefit at Paula Cooper Gallery:

FYI: This is a resized and cut version of the original video by Andy Horwitz, which can be found here.

When the Avant-garde Met Exploration

2011-04-28T17:51:00.002-04:00

Read Galfromdownunder's review of a recent public conversation between Laurie Anderson and David Rothenberg at the Explorer's Club.

By the way, David Rothenberg is the guy who made 'Why Birds Sing' (2007), a BBC documentary that featured some enchanting and heartwarming (although, as far as I remember, mildly scientific) theories about birds' singing. Laurie was one of the interviewees, and in this excerpt she tells about her spellbinding concert experience with an owl:

Talking Stick Returned Reproduced

2011-04-28T17:25:00.004-04:00

~~Ha! Looks like the U. S. Government doesn't consider Laurie's batonlike MIDI instrument as a threat to state security* anymore:~~ [a replica of] the Talking Stick is part of I in U / Eu em tu, the retrospective exhibition of Laurie Anderson's oeuvre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

The Talking Stick in Rio

photo by Alexandra Lima

For more great photos and a description of the exhbition, click to Alexandra Lima's blog (the original Portuguese text is translated into English via Googe Translator).

* FYI: the Talking Stick, originally designed for Laurie's Moby Dick adaptation in 1998, was confiscated by the FBI during a zealous safety measure in 1999.

The Charlie Rose Interview, 2004

2011-04-26T18:38:00.001-04:00

"... But the real reason I wanted to walk to Paris [from Milan] was because I was trying to think about how to be free - 'cause that's really the only thing I care about now... Learn to be free from my prejudices, my patterns, my ideas of what I think is 'good' or 'bad' - just trying to not react to them automatically, and to open my eyes and see what I'm really seeing, not just what I think I'm going to see or what I think should be seen."

"I'm trying not to have a goal, but just to think about how it feels to pay attention."

(Laurie Anderson, 2004)

As part of my Google video rescue project, I'm happy to include here my personal favourite interview with Laurie Anderson: as Charlie Rose's guest in May 2004, she talked about (among others) her Japanese garden project, the importance of freedom, her method of 'working', the walking project / audio diary that later evolved into 'Nothing in My Pockets', and she gave a short demonstration of the Pillow Speaker. Plus, at that time she was still being NASA's resident artist. Sigh.

UPDATED: The 'Click' Interview

2011-04-26T17:09:00.002-04:00

In today's edition of BBC World Service programme 'Click', Laurie Anderson talks to Colin Grant about adopting and adapting cutting-edge technology in her art, and how she can't bear the compression of mp3. Listen to the conversation in BBC's online archive (please let me know if it gets removed from there so that I upload it to the blog) - Laurie's part starts at 11:06:

Laurie Anderson at 'Click' (BBC World Service) - April 26, 2011

UPDATE: here you can read an extraction / loose transcript of the interview.

For Japan with Love: the Concert

2011-04-16T13:45:00.002-04:00

Relief! Japan Society published their record of the performance by John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed (this time supported by a Japanese drummer) at the benefit concert for Japan:

(Hint: enjoy it in its full HD glory on YouTube.)

No Words Needed

2011-04-15T15:38:00.001-04:00

'Duets on Ice' in Rio de Janeiro, March 2011: a video by Marcello Dantas and Raphael Lupo:

For Japan with Love: the Interview

2011-04-14T16:25:00.005-04:00

"Our set was improvised. You never really know what's gonna happen when you improvise. But I felt like there was definitely a spirit there, that kind-of took over. I don't know if it's conscious or choice-- I don't think those are the right words-- but something definitely magical happened."

John Zorn on the trio of himelf, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed
April 2011

In the following video by Japan Society NYC, Lou Reed, John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Philip Glass are discussing their musical selections for the benefit concert for Japan, plus sharing some of their fondest Japan-related memories. Watch and learn about Lou Reed's first computer calculator watch and why Laurie's Japanese s-s-sucks:

A Fearless Afternoon of Non-Rock*

2011-04-09T18:41:00.004-04:00

The trio of Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn got together again for another freeform improvisation as part of a 12-hour-long benefit concert marathon for Japan at the Japan Society in NYC. The result is a one-of-a-kind blend of three strong identities from three different musical worlds; this time supported by a huge Japanese drum (and drummer).

"Lou Reed w/Laurie Anderson & John Zorn just slowly melted my face off & fed it back to me in hole where my face used to be!! I love it!"

Tweet by Quasimario

(I'm afraid this randomly shot screen capture turns out to be the only visual proof of the event... the (record of the) web stream proved to be a disaster for numerous reasons, sorry.)

I needed to chop the audio into two parts since at one point the sound engineers of the web stream thought that the static white noise / guitar feedback generated by Lou's instrument was an error so they turned the volume down in the 14th minute into the concert. (Anyway, the audio files needed to be edited at several points since the webcast kept breaking - in the end I simply cut those short gaps off... a butcher's job. :( I hope it still sounds flawless though.)

Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn at the Japan Society, April 09 2011 - part one (audio length: 13 mins 26 secs, file size: 18.5 MB)

Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed and John Zorn at the Japan Society, April 09 2011 - part two (audio length: 8 mins 47 secs, file size: 12.1 MB)

* a paraphrase of Lou Reed's words on their trio before their performance at the Montréal Jazz Festival in Canada, 2010

In One of Those Abstract Trances :)

2011-04-08T18:21:00.001-04:00

"My sKiRt is ShorT, mY HAir BIG,LauRie'S tIe is Hooked UP tO A SynClAvieR and The 5 Blind Boys ( of whom ThEre ARe Only 3) siNG LAAINGUIDGE, IS A VIRUS! fun to see this again."

(Joy Askew on the 'Language Is a Virus' video from 'Home of the Brave'

Facebook, 2011)

'Moby Dick' Questions and Answers

2011-04-08T17:41:00.001-04:00

Dallas, TX, 1999: the creators and performers of 'Songs and Stories from Moby Dick' talk about the making process of the piece and provide a clinical demonstration of the Talking Stick, a huge batonlike MIDI instrument Laurie created as a support for her love letter of Melville's book:

The 'Moby Dick' crew:

Anthony Turner - Standing Man
Price Waldman - The Cook, Second Mate, Running Man
Tom Nelis - Ahab, Noah, Explorer
Miles Green - Falling Man
Skúli Sverrisson - bass, pepared bass, samples, percussion
Laurie Anderson - Pip, The Whale, narration + visual design, music and lyrics

Thank You, B.

2011-04-08T15:27:00.004-04:00

Thanks for the story about your father's horse.

Two of many

Uppsala, April 2010

What about That Dress?

2011-04-04T19:01:00.002-04:00

"Not a story my people tell."

"One of the things that people have remarked on having seen [the 'Home of the Brave' concert film] was "now what about that dress?" Well, it is a chain metal dress that weighed about 70 pounds - that I were in 'Langue d'amour' - I could hardly hoist myself up onto this platform to walk back and forth and tell the story, so I had to wear sneakers, too. Well, if I had worn heels - what you really should wear with a dress like that - I would have been pile driving the spikes into the beam and just completely destroying this thing.

The song 'Langue d'amour' is of course about a woman and a snake, so I tried to be both narrators in that song: the gloves were supposedly the head and tail of this long snake who keeps slithering around.

[...]

I felt that since this was a story about the Garden of Eden - and this was a woman's story if there ever was one, I mean she initiated this action, Adam really just kinda stood around - so I figured since she was the main person in that story, she should tell it, so that's why I departed from my usual - as they say, androgynous - look to something more appropriate to that story."

(Laurie Anderson, 'Home of the Brave' promo interview, 1986)

Setting the Stage for 'Delusion'

2011-04-03T16:36:00.003-04:00

By clicking to Laurie's projection above, you can browse through Seth Litroff's photo gallery from January 2010 when Laurie Anderson visited Bergen Community College (Paramus, NJ) for rehearsing for 'Delusion' which was to be premiered some weeks later at the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad.

Big Science v0.1

2011-03-31T16:27:00.003-04:00

"'Big Science' started out as an orchestra work called 'It's Cold Outside' which the American Composers Orchestra played, and this was something that I consider something of a failure. I don't really know how to make an orchestra sound and [...] I found that my ideal instrumentation is a few electronic instruments mixed with real ones which are sometimes processed, sometimes not. My favourite combination is violin and saxophone and then other things added to that.

[...]

One of the things about writing works for an orchestra is first of all [that] it's hard for an orchestra to spend much rehearsal time on new work and also you hear it a day before it's actually performed for the first time. So it kind-of is a huge shock and you realize "oh, I should have had the French horns do that" and it's really too late then.

[...]

['It's Cold Outside'] was a work for tape and orchestra. I couldn't quite leave audio tape out of it."

(Laurie Anderson, 1984)

Slide Show from Rio

2011-03-31T04:12:00.002-04:00

The Talking Pillow being tested by its creator

By clicking to the photo above, you can watch a video (more of a slide show) made by Marcello Dantas, the curator of I in U / Eu em Tu, Laurie Anderson's retrospective exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Painting with Light on an Enormous Canvas

2011-03-29T17:47:00.003-04:00

Dead

stars

t h e i r l i g h t s t i l l

trapped

in time.

Light installation by Laurie Anderson

Sydney, Australia 2010
photo by huailimay

The picture above is part of this gorgeous photo gallery of Laurie Anderson's light installations on the sails of the Sydney Opera House during last year's VIVID Festival in Sydney, Australia.

Thanks to Darek for the URL!

More Ice from Rio

2011-03-29T17:06:00.003-04:00

Laurie Anderson's skates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, March 2011
photo by Cristina Granato

FYI: for more photos of the latest performance of 'Duets on Ice', click to the photo above.

Duets on Ice, Rio de Janeiro Version - UPDATED

2011-03-29T12:29:00.007-04:00

Laurie Anderson treated the audience to another Duet on Ice as part of the vernissage of I in U / Eu em Tu, her retrospective exhibition in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (let's hope there'll pop up a more extensive recording of the event on YouTube soon):

UPDATE #1: a longer video - from the second performance on March 29:

UPDATE #2: an HD video - the best one so far (presumably recorded on March 28):

UPDATE #3: another HD video; this one is from the second performance:

A Closed Circuit, Baby.

2011-03-27T17:15:00.001-04:00

I'd rather not try to guess what the following performance might have meant to the average moviegoer in Western Germany, 1983...

Laurie Anderson performs 'Closed Circuit' in Rudolf Thome's movie 'System ohne Schatten' (English title: 'Closed Circuit'):

The Suddenness of Things...

2011-03-27T14:09:00.001-04:00

The latest issue (#4) of 200% Magazine now features an interview with Laurie Anderson. A fragment her rage at expertism can be read on the Flash page of the magazine.

About the Man

2011-03-26T14:17:00.002-04:00

"I could totally relate to the dry salesman [persona] that he created; this very underplayed thing, just very-very removed... [He was] also very-very interested in death. And I think that's what scared Americans more than his writing itself."

(Laurie Anderson on William S. Burroughs; as heard in 'A Man Within')

The Record of That Time

2011-03-24T16:24:00.001-04:00

Rick Liss' stop-motion video of New York City's streets from the first half of the 1980s; soundtrack by Laurie Anderson ('For Electronic Dogs'):

Switching Channels

2011-03-24T15:48:00.003-04:00

Read a story of "a morning of ventriloquism, conspiracy theories and the presidential ambitions of a blowhard named Bergamot" by Jonathan T. D. Neil in Art Review Magazine's online archive.*

Photo by Nick Haymes

(more photos of Laurie
and a pair of beautiful red shoes
at ArtReviewDigital*)

* FYI: You'll need to register to be able to read the magazine's online archive. (It's free.)

Coming Soon

2011-03-23T11:56:00.001-04:00

Art Review Magazine
April 2011 issue

FYI: the magazine's online edition can be accessed after a free registration.

The Song That Left Mnemosyne Speechless

2011-03-22T11:22:00.001-04:00

Once upon a time...

"For the 50th anniversary of WNYC's FM station in June of 1994, we decided to embark on a program of commissioning music from diverse American composers to celebrate the occasion. [...] We asked the noted poet John Ashbery for a poem, and then sent it to 12 composers. Their instructions were simple: write a piece based on the poem — it did not have to be a typical voice-with-piano setting; it could use some of the text, all of the text, or none of the text. [...] In the end, a splendid concert took place on June 13, 1994, when thirteen pieces by the twelve composers had their world premieres at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall."

(WNYC Music Host John Schaefer)

Laurie Anderson was among the twelve composers involved, and she

"provided a tape piece, 'This House of Blues', in which she set her own inflected reading of the poem, in slightly rearranged form, against a soft-edged, electronically altered ensemble."

(Allan Kozinn / The New York Times)

'This House of Blues' was later included in 'The WNYC Commissions Vol. One', released in 2002, almost completely unavailable in 2011.

After a months-long journey through the United States and half of Europe, thanks to a bunch of helpful friends, the CD has recently arrived to Mnemosyne.

The awesomeness of the song has left Mnemosyne speechless but she was convinced this song cried for visual accompaniment. And publicity. That's why she asked lukeslark to create a video for it.

Here's what Luke has to say about his creation:

"[...] decided to take a very simple approach visually, partly due to the fact that the lyrical content is quite abstract and complex and really needs to stand by itself without distraction, but also because I'm drawn increasingly to simplicity, the transparent, like the 'pellucid statues' mentioned by the daughter. Interesting how Laurie's intonation of 'she said' following the daughter's words ties the piece back to her earlier work i.e. 'It Tango'. [...]

My first thought with the song was to use tight claustrophobic blue corridors [...] - but as soon as I found the sky footage I thought, 'that's it!'."

~~Close~~ open your eyes and behold.

(FYI: lyrics and credits under the video)

No Longer Very Clear

by John Ashbery

In this house of blues...

It's true that I can no longer remember very well
The time when we first began to know each other
However, I do remember very well
The first time we met. You walked in sunlight,
Holding a daisy. You said, "Children make unreliable witnesses."

In this house of blues...

Now, so long after that time,
I keep the spirit of it throbbing still.
The ideas are still the same, and they expand
to fill vast, antique cubes.
My daughter was reading one just the other day.
She said, "How like pellucid statues, Daddy. Or like a...
an engine."

In this house of blues...

In this house of blues the cold creeps stealthily upon us.
I do not dare to do what I fantasize doing.
With time the blue congeals into roomlike purple
That takes the shape of alcoves, landings...
Everything is like something else.
I should have waited before I learned this.

Credits:

Laurie Anderson, vocals and keyboards
Cyro Baptista, percussion
Joey Baron, drums
Greg Cohen, bass
Brian Eno, drum treatments

Laurie Anderson and the Arties

2011-03-17T11:05:00.001-04:00

Franklin Furnace, a New Yorker organization for all things avant-garde, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1986 with The Arties award ceremony honoring "20th century avant-garde artists who have contributed to popular culture".

Robert Rauschenberg presented an Artie to Laurie Anderson "for her visual, literary and musical triumph, 'United States'".

FYI: This video features Laurie Anderson's part only. If you'd like to watch the whole ceremony, click to the original video.

2011-03-16T16:53:00.002-04:00

Sleep is where you learn to let things go.

The dead in their hideouts.

The spinning world.

Yes, sleep is a vanishing act.

And then again, so is life.

[lyrics excerpt from 'Delusion' by Laurie Anderson]

[photo by Stanford Lively Arts]

The Sound of That Much Life

2011-03-15T06:56:00.007-04:00

Here's another track from New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges, Colin Stetson's new album: 'Fear of the Unknown and the Blazing Sun' features Laurie Anderson's somehow detached and puzzling spoken-word contribution and Shara Worden's singing on the top of Colin Stetson's hypnotically pulsating saxophone playing - the latter was recorded live, in one take by twenty microphones placed around his instrument (the clicks and claps you hear come from Colin pushing the keys of the saxophone).

Tape-bow Violin, v2.0

2011-03-14T11:24:00.001-04:00

When a Laurie Anderson lecture proves seminal...

Young St. Louisian composer and musician David MacDonald, having gotten inspired by Laurie Anderson's tape-bow violin as an undergraduate student some years before, has now created the Sampolin, the tape-bow violin's digital version.

The Sampolin has got the shape of an analogue violin but it's filled inside with electronics and it's got some extra knobs and buttons.

Similarly to the original, a certain short sample of sound is assigned to the bow: the sample 'starts' at one end, and it 'ends' at the other end of the bow. If the bow touches the the string on the Sampolin, the string tells the computer which part of the bow is touching it, so the computer will tell which part of the sample to be played. By pushing the buttons aligned on the neck, the player can easily switch between the samples he wants to play. Plus, by turning the tuners in the pegbox, instead of fine-tuning the strings, the player can add extra effects to the raw sound, for example an additional musical tone that is extracted from the original sample.

Watch David's introduction of the Sampolin:

Witness the Darkness. (Literally, It's Removed)

2011-03-13T09:32:00.012-04:00

:(

Do not hold your breaths any longer: it's here at last, in its entirety! After a deliverance of more than two weeks, now you can watch a complete video recording of 'The Speed of Darkness', a live performance by Laurie Anderson from 1997, uploaded by LukeK79 (whose other Andersonite uploads are also highly recommended).

~~'The Speed of Darkness' features stories about, amongst others,~~

control

~~while~~

holding a mirror up to late twentieth century techno-culture.

~~The musical parts contain elements from 'Bright Red', the 'Nerve Bible' performances as well as the then-subsequent 'Moby Dick' / 'Life on a String'.~~

~~Playlist:~~

~~Intro / World Without End~~
~~Alexander the Great / Hey Ah Hey / Music and Sand / Cybersex~~
~~Technology / Content Providers / Hotel Hot Dogs~~
~~Hunting for Information / The Night Flight from Houston~~
~~To the Moon / You've Got to Have Leaders~~
~~Rockefeller Center / Theme Park with Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno~~
~~Therapies / Can You Hear Me? / Someone Else's Dream / Microsoft and Vatican~~
~~Interspecies Communications / Michael Jackson / Elvis Séance / Video Conference~~
~~Video Conference (cont'd) / Work Ethic and Control Rooms~~
~~The Language of the Future (as the Voice of Authority)~~
~~Muddy River / Pillow Speaker Song~~

Duets on Ice in London, 2011 a. k. a. Auditive Solace for the Remote and Deprived (Plus Photos, Yay)

2011-03-08T04:55:00.004-05:00

... a. k. a. that's what friends are for!

Files on a String now proudly presents timeiswide's recording of 'Duets on Ice' in London, performed at the Barbican Art Gallery a few days ago: prepare your ears for 2 x 12 minutes of groovy freeform improvisation onto musical bases that may be familiar from 'Delusion' (plus, I dare say, 'Homeland'). Yes, there are two recordings since the first session of 'Duets on Ice' (8 PM) was sold out so the organizers announced yet another performance at 9 PM. Considering Laurie's genuine inclination towards random playfulness, it comes as no surprise that the sessions are quite different from each other.

"[...] also, Laurie almost fell off the very tiny stage .... during the second session, the ice on her right skate broke off, and Laurie lost her balance .... [then] got her balance back. Laughed, smiled and immediately continued with now only one ice block, received an extra applause from a relieved audience ... "

"[...] and what felt as a long long time when Laurie lost her balance due to an ice-break on her right foot skate turns out to be a split second on the rec!
See, what you sense and experience as many seconds turns out to be different, on a recording!"

(excerpt from Timeiswide's review of the sessions)

Laurie Anderson's 'Duets on Ice' in London (2011-03-03), Session One at 8PM (audio length: 13 mins 2 secs, file size: 17.9 MB)

Laurie Anderson's 'Duets on Ice' in London (2011-03-03), Session Two at 9PM (audio length: 12 mins 5 secs, file size: 16.6 MB)

Laurie Anderson playing 'Duets on Ice'

at the Barbican Centre in London, England

photo by Rune Hellestad

(FYI: more photos of the event at Contactmusic: here and here. Also in Barbican's Facebook photo gallery!)

The Never-Had Art of Conversation, LOL

2011-03-07T16:04:00.001-05:00

"Art and tv don't mix, everybody knows that. If people wanted to see art on tv, they'd say "hey, you know, I want to see art on tv"."

(Tad Eustace Ghostal a. k. a. Space Ghost sharing his doubts about Laurie Anderson's guest appearance on his talk show)

Behold yet another rip-roaring slab of quality talk show entertainment: in an episode of 'Space Ghost Coast to Coast', an animated late night show, Space Ghost had the displeasure to interview downtown musician type Citizen Anderson on subjects like remote controls, online invisibility and Richard Nixon.

To stay diplomatic, the episode was not the highlight of Space Ghost's professional career as a talk show host. But who cares if you can get a screen capture that reveals its message only when flipped horizontally :)

Visual Solace for the Remote and Deprived

2011-03-03T04:09:00.002-05:00

A photo gallery and a video tour of the joint exhibition of the early works of Laurie Anderson, choreographer Trisha Brown and the late artist Gordon Matta-Clark at the Barbican Art Gallery in London:

The exhibition is called Pioneers of the Downtown Scene, New York 1970s. It opens today and it runs until May 22nd, 2011.

FYI: Tonight Laurie Anderson will re-perform one of her early trademark acts, Duets on Ice at the gallery.

Sigh.

A Singing Carpenter's Level and Other Everyday Stuff...

2011-03-03T03:43:00.003-05:00

21 more or less tabloid-sort questions and 21 adequately neat'n'bland (sometimes informative) answers, still a pleasant read - this is New York Magazine's recent interview with Laurie Anderson.

The End of the Moon... Almost

2011-03-02T06:22:00.001-05:00

Read Tom Gordon's breathtaking story about a Laurie Anderson gig's soundcheck turning into a disaster right before the show... Tension. Twist. Thrill. More tension. In a theater near, uh, Reno NV (snare, snare, hi-hat).

Laurie Anderson at ICA (London), 1990

2011-02-28T15:00:00.002-05:00

"[...] thrills for me are discovering something while I'm working or talking to someone or suddenly realizing "oh I could see that upside down for a second" or you just suddenly get a totally different point of view of a very familiar situation. To me that's a kind of key of... if it's already familiar but I can look at it as if it's not at all."

(Laurie Anderson, 1990)

Listen to a gorgeous conversation between Laurie Anderson and Sarah Kent at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK. According to the British Library's archive, the recording was made back in November 1990, cca. a year after the release of 'Strange Angels' album, and towards the last month of the 'Empty Places' Tour which was running almost during the whole year in 1990. Consequently, it's no surprise that among the topics were the current tour and the album; Wim Wenders; learning to sing; having a lot of different voices; speed and avant-garde; senator Jesse Helms and 'Coolsville' - plus many many more. There's a particularly amusing part about Ken Nordine around 38 minutes into the record; Laurie did a hilarious imitation of his manner of speaking.

Laurie Anderson talk at ICA (1990) (audio length: 73 mins 13 secs; listen to the stream directly in the archive of the British Library)

Filling the Garden with a Single Melody

2011-02-27T18:09:00.005-05:00

The Singing Trees project in Basel, Switzerland is not going to be Laurie Anderson's first garden sound installation - in 2002, she filled the World Financial Center Winter Garden with an enormous sound cloud created by her violin/viola.

Read about the details of the project Sonic Garden website or listen to Laurie's introduction and an excerpt of the lovely melody directly by clicking to the following URL:

Laurie Anderson's Winter Garden Project (audio length: 2 mins 22 secs, file size: 3.27 MB)

Metrópolis, 1986

2011-02-27T17:42:00.004-05:00

"While I criticize technology I use several thousand Watts of power to say that."

(Laurie Anderson, 1986)

Caution: the following videos are recommended only for those who are inclined to bear overdubbing on the original (English) sound.

TVE's (Spanish national tv) cultural magazine Metrópolis has made this interview with Laurie Anderson around the time of the 'Home of the Brave' Tour. I originally found the video in the online archive of TVE but soon it proved to be simply crap - halfway into the video, vision and sound slip out of sync which gets really serious / annoying towards the end (cca. 15-20 secs). So I decided to synchronize the sound bit-by-bit back to the video. Sadly, the overall quality of the original video was quite poor (for example, at some points you can hear an opera aria seeping into the left channel, etc.), plus, I had to create a different sound intro as well. Now the result is on YouTube; you decide about its enjoyability.

In the interview Laurie discussed topics like American pop culture; being a social critic; Laurie's love-hate relationship with technology; the wide range of one-of-a-kind instruments used during the 'Home of the Brave' Tour (including, among others, the keyboard tie and the drum suit) and many more. She was also talking about the imagery of 'Blue Lagoon' and the Spanish lyrics of 'Smoke Rings'.

Hablar... Gone... Awry

2011-02-26T06:02:00.001-05:00

"I looked out and every single person had gone..."

(Laurie Anderson on her worst concert experience)

... the quote above is taken from Laurie's adventure with Spanish language from the time when she was trying to get rid of one of her bad habits. Read the rest of the story at WorstGig, music journalist Jon Niccum's interview series on artists' worst concert experiences.

Laurie Anderson 101 - the Audio Edition

2011-02-26T04:16:00.004-05:00

Two hours of Laurie Anderson's music - from two recent audio portraits from Europe:

1. First, a podcast from Spain, presented by Alex Kocic / UEMCOM Radio.

ivoox Artist of the Week: Laurie Anderson (audio length: 59 mins 21 secs, file size: 27 MB)

Playlist:

Transitory Life
Born, Never Asked
White Lily
Coolsville
Hiawatha
World Without End
Speak My Language
Washington Street
Beginning French
Strange Perfumes
O Superman
Bright Red
Only an Expert

2. The other one comes from Stockholm: Laurie Anderson's musical portrait as part three of Sveriges Radio P4's 'Poets, Dreamers and Visionaries' series. Along with Carin Kjellman's introduction (in beautiful melodic Swedish, of course):

Bohemen, Drömmaren och Visionären: Laurie Anderson (audio length: 55 mins 2 secs) (click to the PLAY button in the bottom banner of the page)

Playlist:

O Superman
The Ouija Board
Love Among the Sailors
From the Air
Cartoon Song (from United States Live)
Baby Doll
Thinking of You
Big Science
Rotowhirl
My Eyes
The Dream Before
In Our Sleep
Strange Angels
The Beginning of Memory
The Lake
Flow

Detroit vs. Laurie

2011-02-26T03:20:00.002-05:00

Reviews of Laurie Anderson's recent lecture at the Detroit Institute of Arts - one from each side:

The Detroiter: Who Are You People? - a lengthy description provided by Geoffrey LaRue at Crasstalk

Laurie Anderson Lecture at DFT: Had I paid for tickets, I woulda been pissed! - LAWRENCEcreative was not blown away by what he witnessed, to say the least. Oh well.

The (Late) Night America Got Its Insanity Fix

2011-02-25T19:38:00.009-05:00

~~A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a wo...~~ whatevs. Laurie Anderson is the master of confusion. Performing as her male alter-ego Fenway Bergamot on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night (February 24, 2011), (s)he stirred a tidal wave of WTF among the viewers of the show which, for a few hours, sent the term "Laurie Anderson" among America's top trending topics on Twitter.

Super wicked creepy awesomeness - or just 'Another Day in America':

If you are interested what people thought about Fenway Bergamot, check these out:

Prefixmag's review of the performance
Tweets posted during and after the performance, collected by Mnemosyne (some seriously hilarious genuine reactions - explicit language!)

"Deals with the Spiritual Issues of Our Time"

2011-02-19T17:17:00.005-05:00

"I don't actually believe in angels but I do believe that we are them."

(Laurie Anderson at Columbia University, 2011)

Listen to how Laurie Anderson navigated her way through the sometimes elusive / dim / intangible subjects of spirituality, faith and religion in a public conversation held at Columbia University on February 10, 2011 - thanks to the CU Institute for Religion, Culture & Public Life website, the conversation can be downloaded as a podcast:

'Refiguring the Spiritual' with Laurie Anderson (audio length: 61 mins 35 secs, file size: 28.1 MB)

It's almost impossible (and unnecessary) to list all the topics touched upon - just to name a few: Melville and the Biblical symbolism of Moby Dick; silence, pain and meditation; being a spy as an artist, Laurie's pentecostal missionary grandmother, Capitalist Realism, making freeform fiction out of Egyptian architecture; John Cage, NASA's poetic projects, pressure of technology; pitch and prayer; How to Be Idle, the School of Life, what is an artist, etc. etc. etc.

You can find a bunch of great reviews of the conversation on ircpl.org by Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti, Courtney Bender, Shelly Silver, María Cristina Fernández Hall, Kali Handelman and Nora Griffin.

Twitter's archive has also got a series of enthusiastic tweets from the event by keith_wilson and saletteg. :)

(FYI: all URLs open in a new window)

Art Comes from Anger, Art Comes from Love

2011-02-14T16:50:00.002-05:00

Q: What is the obligation of art?

A: I don’t think it has one. I think it has to be anarchistic. [...] I don’t think anarchy needs to be angry. In fact, I think tender anarchy is a great goal. It is what makes things a little different from the clamor of cultural products being hyped and bought and sold.

Read Don't Panic Magazine's interview in which Laurie Anderson tells about the romanticism of being an artist in New York in the Seventies, and the difference between that era and consumerism, today's major art form.

Laurie at the Grammies

2011-02-14T16:21:00.002-05:00

Laurie Anderson presenting the classical Grammies at the 53rd annual Pre-Grammy Awards Gala - introduction by Esperanza Spaulding - recorded from YouTube live video stream - all acceptance speeches got heartlessly cut off, sorry:

Oh well.

2011-02-13T20:49:00.007-05:00

No Grammy for 'Flow' - too bad / so what / their loss (pick your favourite).

However, the awesomeness factor of the Pre-Grammy telecast (via YouTube) ran up high the moment the fourth presenter graced the stage

Laurie Anderson presenting classical Grammies

February 2011

wearing a pair of red socks and high-heeled killer red slippers - how cool is that!

Laurie Anderson

low profile, kicking a$$

- and gracefully doing her slightly awkward job of accepting all those classical music Grammies on behalf of the podium.

on behalf of the podium

Жыве Беларусъ!

2011-02-12T05:14:00.001-05:00

Лори Андерсон's appeal for freedom of imprisoned Belarusian activist Aleksandr Atroshchankau - in January 2011, Laurie was also part of a benefit performance in support for Belarus Free Theater.

OO...... oO.. oo..... ooO ....o

2011-02-08T12:00:00.002-05:00

Laurie Anderson playing... about the fish? Or just making them Delusional?

"What War Was That?"

2011-02-07T15:46:00.001-05:00

"There were those who knew only the sound of their own voices.
There were those who knew the rules.
There were those who freed their bodies.
There were those who couldn't take it.
There were others on their own.
Who was it?
Who was it?"

(excerpt from Laurie Anderson's contribution to
Colin Stetson's new album)

LA: "He's a colossal player. [...] He's a really amazing player."

LR: "He is really astonishing - but honestly - how he can play for more than twenty minutes..."

LA: "... Without dying, yeah..."

LR: "... Without being killed. I mean, the horn is bigger than he is. And he's doing circular breathing."

(Laurie Anderson's and Lou Reed's appreciative words on Colin Stetson

- as heard on the radio)

More on Krems, Austria

2011-02-05T10:01:00.001-05:00

"[...] I was asked by an art museum in Austria to do an installation project. The museum was in this really little town called Krems, about an hour from Vienna. And so I went to check it out. Krems is this sort of a perfect little Austrian town on the Danube filled with medieval churches and these elegant onion-domed towers and spires. The Kunsthalle there is connected to a twelfth century church where they do a lot of their larger exhibitions now. This building was a church for about six hundred years and since then it's been used for like a variety of different things like a kind of a flop house for pilgrims and indigents, and then a convent and then it was an all purpose kind of cultural institution - it's this huge structure and very resonant acoustics with really really long delays. The museum wanted me to design something, some sort of sound installation, whatever I wanted, especially for this particular space with its resonance.

At first I was trying to figure out how to get the church to talk, to make something about language, about language that was going up... [...]

Every day I would walk around this little town, and the weird thing about this place was that right in the middle of town there was this huge maximum security prison - tall gray walls and these enormous guard towers... And it was really strange because mostly prisons are built out on heaths or in some uninhabited wild faraway area. So, I'm looking around the town and thinking about what to do and I climbed to the top of the belltower of this church to try to get a better view of the way the town was laid out, just a bigger picture. I was up there in the belfry and I suddenly realized that I could look directly over at the guy with a machine gun in the guardtower and then directly down into the prison yard from the belltower.

So, I proposed making this thing for the church - for the cultural institution - called Life. It would work like this: we'd make a three dimensional life-size cast of one of the prisoners and place it in the apse in this church. And then using a live video feed, the image of the prisoner would be projected from the prison to the church. So the video signal would travel in a straight line from the prison, up the guard tower, across the street to the church, down the bell tower into the apse, and finally mapping onto this three dimensional cast. So you could walk up to this three dimensional image and touch it and would be something that was kind of there and not there. (I suppose a one way system from that point of view.)

I wrote some things for the curators about why I wanted to do this, about my interest in telepresence and how cameras are changing different attitudes towards particularly the human body - incarceration vs. incarnation - and distinguish the prison and the church. And I said I thought it would raise some interesting questions about time, icons and cameras and the function of institutions. Now of course I was also pretty nervous about this idea as well. I mean it's one thing for a priest to deliver a sermon about evil incarnate in a church and it's really another thing to actually come in as a foreigner and teleport a prisoner into the apse.

Anyway, the curators at the Kunsthalle were enthusiastic about doing the project but a couple of weeks later they discovered that Austrian law forbids the representation of the prisoner's face, so once they're in prison they're like erased and that's part - a big part - of the punishment. I decided that without the face, the projection would be pointless, I mean, Life from the Collar down is just not that gripping. I mean, humans have (to have) eyes or, in a way, they aren't really there. So I dropped this idea. [...]"

(excerpt from a lecture given by Laurie Anderson at New School in 2005,
as heard in this video)

(FYI: this project was the predecessor of Laurie Anderson's Dal Vivo (Life) project)

A Second and a Third Self

2011-02-03T14:16:00.002-05:00

Excerpts of an interview made in Lublin, Poland during the KODY Festival last year:

Laurie in Austria!

2011-02-02T12:38:00.002-05:00

Laurie Anderson will perform 'Transitory Life' on the weekend of May 5th-7th, 2011 as part of Donaufestival in Krems, Austria. For the time being, only early bird tickets are available for the whole weekend. Single tickets will be on sale after the 10th of March.

Happy to Be Geeking out

2011-02-01T16:55:00.002-05:00

"I don't mind being a little off."

(Laurie Anderson)

Mainstream culture and social identity, audio drag and "the physical way", plus a bucket list - this is Laurie Anderson's random two (three, four...) cents to OUT Magazine.

Eerie Purple Clouds Moving around the Notes

2011-02-01T05:21:00.005-05:00

At last - part three of Deirdre Mulrooney's Skype interview has arrived: "On 2011 projects, Lolobelle, and Inter-species Communication" (plus Laurie's violin, the evolution of 'Delusion'; Leonard Cohen and walking on the spine of a dinosaur).

Looks like a prolific year Laurie is looking forward to - just a couple of tags in advance: a new book! Short songs on violin! 3D movie installations! Interpreting the way fish move via violin playing for blind people! Walking in Ireland!

(Vulgo.ie ~~has also put the transcript of the interview online~~ oh, they removed it.)

Strange Perfumes in Budapest

2011-01-30T07:24:00.004-05:00

"My mother is cold and my father is dead
I can only see him in the back of my own head."

(excerpt from 'Strange Perfumes' live version, 2007

music and lyrics by Laurie Anderson)

OMG, this is a mesmerizing live version of 'Strange Perfumes' - recorded in Budapest, Hungary, June 2007. It's got totally different lyrics from the album version, e. g. it mentions names from a long lost past - hear it for yourself.

Laurie at AndrewAndrew Again, Revisited

2011-01-29T06:18:00.003-05:00

"[The reason] why the idea of infinity didn't go over in the Middle Ages [was that] the popes were going like "What if there are infinite number of planets - is there a pope on every planet? And if so, who's top pope?""

Talk radio at its best - no need to say more :)

AndrewAndrew put a video excerpt of Laurie Anderson's recent appearance on their show on East Village Radio's website:

The Ambience of Memory

2011-01-28T09:35:00.005-05:00

'Egypt. Sunken Treasures', an extensive travelling exhibition of ancient Egyptian relics excavated from underwater in the area of the Nile Delta had a special extra feature in Italy: the musical / sound environment of the exhibition in Veneria was provided by Laurie Anderson.

Watch the video and enjoy the unique atmosphere supported by a hypnotic instrumental version of 'The Beginning of Memory' (at 0:53):

Thanks to Viki for the URL!

Out of Luck with Forum Romanum :(

2011-01-28T08:06:00.004-05:00

Italian newspaper La Repubblica held a Q & A forum for Laurie Anderson and the readers of the newspaper in Rome, December 2010. (Although having been informed about the event right in time before travelling to Rome, no matter how hard Mnemosyne and her friends tried they could not get the information on the whereabouts and date of the forum... argh!)

Now La Repubblica's online manifestation has published a video of the event; alas, dubbed in Italian. What's more, at the expense of intelligibility. :( Anyway, enjoy what you can make out of it:

Hopefully the English translation of the transcript helps some...

UPDATE: A photo gallery of the event in the Rome section of La Repubblica.

Happy with No Dance Floor

2011-01-23T16:27:00.003-05:00

"[...] When things break down, it can be... either you can choose to see it as a disaster, or you can choose to see it as an opportunity."

(Laurie Anderson to Irish culture magazine VULGO, 2011)

Part two of VULGO.ie's Skype interview with Laurie Anderson: "On Idleness, Capitalism, and the Role of the Artist.", plus a depressive story from Iceland. Along with transcript, yay!

A Birthday Song and a New Year's Resolution

2011-01-20T14:21:00.002-05:00

A must-read: MissMusicNerd's classic interview with the recipient of the 2011 SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award on (among other things) the story behind 'Flow', going back to Chicago, Laurie's unique five-string violin / viola, some of her current favourite music, and her new semi-conscious method of discovering music.

Pioneer of the Downtown Scene, 1974

2011-01-18T13:14:00.001-05:00

'How to Yodel in Soup and Tart' by Laurie Anderson

The Kitchen, NYC, 1974

photo by Peter Moore

part of this forthcoming exhibition in the Barbican Art Gallery
(London, March - May 2011)

Laurie Anderson: A "Legacy Artist" with Irish Roots

2011-01-14T10:23:00.003-05:00

"[...] just to have something more about the illogical way that we get through the world.

(Laurie Anderson on why she included her dreams in 'Delusion', January 2011)

Here's the first part of Irish culture magazine VULGO.ie's Skype interview with Laurie Anderson: "On truth, dreams, delusion, and being half Irish".

FYI: The magazine has also published the transcript of the interview.