Big Science v0.1

"'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)

Grammy Flashback from 1984

While browsing the Grammy website for any mention of Laurie Anderson's nomination for Grammy 2011 (no success yet, by the way), I bumped into the following eye candy from 1984: along with Ray Davies, Laurie was the announcer for Best New Artist - the winner was Cyndi Lauper.

Sorry, I Could Not Resist This One

"This is me in my Halloween costume."

(Laurie Anderson in 'Talk Normal: A Lecture by Laurie Anderson', Tokyo 1987)

(the screen capture is actually from the video for 'Language Is a Virus' / Home of the Brave, 1984)

How to Turn Random Goodness into a Blog

Dearreader(s),


now that the posts irreversibly outnumbered the ever possible readers of Files on a String (this is the 100th post on the blog, yay!), the moment of unabashed cult of personality has arrived (at last): here goes Mnemosyne's favourite portrait of Laurie Anderson, taken by Chester Simpson in San Francisco, 1984.


          Thanks for your attention so far.


                        Mnemosyne



(P. S.: In case you are new to Files on a String or never clicked to any photo: a bigger version does open in a new window.)

P. P. S.: For more gorgeousness, click to New Fine Art Prints' Laurie Anderson gallery.

College of Musical Knowledge, 1984

Listen to an interview from 1984 with an oh-so-young-and-soft-voiced Laurie Anderson, preserved in Alfred Sneider's archive, as part of his radio series called 'College of Musical Knowledge' on WRUV-FM Radio Burlington, Vermont.


Here is the interview in one long part in its original place:

• Ira Melnick's interview with Laurie Anderson on WRUV-FM, May 1984 (audio length: 63 mins 23 secs, file size: 59 MB)

... or chopped, enhanced and edited into more 'edible' parts here, on Files on a String:

• WRUV interview (1984) - part one (audio length: 5 mins 34 secs, file size: 7.65 MB)
   - the car horn concert in Vermont, 1972 / about 'Juanita'

• WRUV interview (1984) - part two (audio length: 4 mins 12 secs, file size: 5.79 MB)
   - being a storyteller / conversational talking as real improvisation / mistakes and their use, e. g. in 'Langue d'amour'

• WRUV interview (1984) - part three (audio length: 5 mins 40 secs, file size: 7.78 MB)
   - being a feminist performer (or not) / separating art and politics

• WRUV interview (1984) - part four (audio length: 4 mins 7 secs, file size: 5.67 MB)
   - the role of the audience

• WRUV interview (1984) - part five (audio length: 4 mins 18 secs / file size: 5.91 MB)
   - using all kinds of sounds in music / tape-bow violin

• WRUV interview (1984) - part six (audio length: 4 mins 36 secs, file size: 6.33 MB)
   - the digital equivalent of the tape-bow violin (United States Tour!) / the colour white

• WRUV interview (1984) - part seven (audio length: 5 mins 53 secs, file size: 8.9 MB)
   - the Handphone Table / an epic album in progress: 'United States Live' (!!)

Concert Photos: United States Live in NYC, May 1984

For more vintage photos by Anthea Sims (Simms?) from the Beacon Theater (NYC), May 1984 along with a Greek article on Laurie Anderson, click here. (Or here is a little help from Google Translator.)

You remember Warhol.

"And there's Andy Warhol's fifteen minutes. His time limit for fame, for the spotlight. And so why is it fifteen minutes, and not ten or three? Or a New York minute? And then I remembered - fifteen was a famous number at that time. It was in all the papers: fifteen minutes was the time that took for an ICBM to reach New York City from Moscow. You remember Moscow."

(Laurie Anderson, Happiness Tour, 2003) 

Andy Warhol and Laurie Anderson, 1984

Photo by Ann Clifford

Source: LIFE archives

Semi off-topic extra: Lou Reed's 'Pale Blue Eyes' is a part of the soundtrack of Andy Warhol's exclusive 3D exhibition in Budapest (open until tomorrow). Whatever.