This Is Delusion.

TAS Interview

During the last couple days, I updated the 'Delusion' review list (see a few posts below) several times. Now here is The Alternative Side's interview with Laurie Anderson on the occasion of the NYC premiere of the performance: on "technology, capitalism, the idle life, dead donkeys and her ailing, but feisty rat terrier Lolabelle who really does play the piano" and a lot more.

Laurie's Territory

A recent documentary on Laurie Anderson in Portuguese (luckily, the interview is subtitled) - click to the picture to watch the video (it will open in a new window):

Music to Dance to...

Read Laurie Anderson's words on collaborating with renowned choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown in New York Times' slide show.

In the Loft

Lou (Reed) and Hal (Willner) talked to Laurie Anderson in 'Lou Reed's New York Shuffle with Hal Willner' on Sirius Radio's Channel 29 ('The Loft') on the 26th of September 2010. Laurie was also a guest DJ, she chose 'Bodies in Motion', 'Only an Expert', 'O Superman' and 'Falling' ("a shortie") to play.

OMG, Lou Reed does love his wife, it was so heartwarming to hear his affectionate words about Laurie. Here is the conversation in one part; songs edited out:

• Lou, Hal and Laurie on 'The Loft' / Sirius Radio Channel 29 (audio length: 15 mins 58 secs, file size: 21.9 MB)

"Curious Tales and Observations" - the 'Delusion' Review List

Reviews of 'Delusion' at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NYC (might add more later as they appear):

• Laurie Anderson's Delusion at BAM - Andy Horwitz calling Laurie Anderson "the queen of the epigram and the meaningful pause"

• Illusions Found in Our Narratives - Allan Kozinn pondering over "the episodic nature" of the performance

• Laurie Anderson Brings Her Delusion to BAM - Rob Harvilla proclaiming 'Delusion' "Better Than: Hearing anyone else on earth talk about their dreams"

• How Deluded Can You Be? - Saxon Henry recalling her "musical pilgrimage"

• Look Who's Talking - semi-impressed Elisabeth Vincentelli pronouncing 'Delusion' as the mark of "the evolution of Anderson from high-tech musician to high-tech spoken-word artist". Here is another shorter reaction from Elisabeth Vincentelli, calling the performance "a tedious theatrical event" but complimenting on Laurie Anderson being "amazingly ageless".

• Laurie Anderson's Delusion Continues @ BAM - ardent words by Andrew Frisicano, emphasizing Laurie Anderson's "sonorous voice, and her ability as a monologuist to travel to different places (the moon, Iceland, dreams)". Along with photos by Rahav Segev - like this one:

"In this dream, I'm in a hospital bed"

• Thoughts on Laurie Anderson’s "Delusion" at BAM - Matthew Caron's "90 minutes in thrall"

• Laurie Anderson Tells Very Tall Tales at B. A. M. - Wayne Hoffmann hypnotized by the performance "but not always in a good way"

• Living, Waking and Dreaming - Queer New York Blog's author calling the show thoughtful, "introspective and wistful"

• Laurie Anderson's Beautiful Delusion - Judy Berman pondering over the performance that is "more than anything, a meditation on mortality", declaring the show "personal" and "accessible". More photos by Rahav Segev under the article

• Theater Review: 'Delusion' - Judd Hollander on "sensations [that] allow everyone in the audience to connect with the production on their own personal level"

• Laurie Anderson Dreams on - VillageVoice author Jacob Gallagher-Ross raving about "the kaleidoscopic projections, the virtuoso musicianship, and Anderson’s koan-like writing"

• Dream vs. Delusion - Alexis Clements' unmoored "Isn't it odd?" moments
  

• Sentimentalist's Review - Madeline Virbasius didn't manage to get "fully under the spell" of the performance

• Woe Man, Woah Man blogger is both excited and bored to sleep by Laurie Anderson's Delusion

• Patrizia Mazzuoccolo (A biatch in the Northern Sky) welcomed her "break from the testo-fuelled heavy metal gigs" she usually attends

• Created and Performed by Laurie Anderson - Don Shewey's review of his "re-encounter the deep strangeness of what [Laurie] does", claiming 'Delusion' "the strongest piece since 'Empty Places'"

Saluting Laurie Anderson

Click here to see more preview stills from Laurie Anderson's 'Delusion' at BAM by Paul Wagtouicz.

"I love pushing buttons."

"Everything I do is a kind-of long last piece in the last forty years."

"As an artist I try to make things that I like and hope that other people will get it. And if they don't, I don't really care, if they do, I'm really happy."

(Laurie Anderson, 2010)

... Just some of Mnemosyne's favourite quotes from an interview of yesterday.

AndrewAndrew SoundSound on East Village Radio talked to Laurie Anderson via phone on the day of the New York City premiere of 'Delusion'.


You can listen to the whole show in one in the archive of the show's audio archive (under the date of September 21, 2010) or just the interview here, edited into two parts:

• AndrewAndrew interview September 21st, 2010 - part one (audio length: 10 mins 0 secs, file size: 13.7 MB)

• AndrewAndrew interview September 21st, 2010 - part two (audio length: 8 min 40 secs, file size: 11.9 MB)

Inside John Peel's Record Box

"He gave it a chance for... a lot of people to hear it. And I would never get the chance in the United States. Never."

"It was a kind of national anthem, it was also a kind of weird warped lullaby."

"And to be one of the records in this small box, it makes me so happy, it almost makes me sad."

(Laurie Anderson on 'O Superman' being featured in legendary UK radio DJ John Peel's show in 1981

- as heard on 'John Peel's Record Box', a BBC documentary (2005))

UPDATE: listen to what radio DJ David Jensen, Feargal Sharkey, Laurie Anderson, Sir Elton John and others have to say about 'O Superman's emergence in the UK with the help of John Peel

• John Peel's Record Box: 'O Superman' by Laurie Anderson (audio length: 1 min 21 secs, file size: 1.86 MB)

Youtube Binge!

"For the last forty years I've been making work [that was] sometimes sort of performances, sometimes sort of intimate, sometimes big sort of things, with lots of projection... made a lot of instruments, musical instruments as well - a wide range of stuff. But based on stories. So, when looking at these works, I looked for something that had a good story."

(YouTube Play jury Laurie Anderson)

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.

Laurie Anderson vs. Big Brother

A not-so-fun fact from Laurie Anderson's college years in Alice Cavanagh's blog.

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: Nashville, 2005

'The End of the Moon', November 2005 in the Massey Concert Hall in Nashville, TN, as part of the 'Great Performances at Vanderbilt' series. Photo by John J. Brassil. Click here for more photos of the concert.

Stories and Dreams on WNYC

Laurie Anderson talked to John Schafer on WNYC (New York Public Radio)'s Soundcheck show on September 16th, 2010. In a week 'Delusion' will premiere in New York City, as the highlight of BAM's Next Wave Festival.

Topics:

- 'Delusion' - how "a series of plays for two people about things you just can't reconcile turned into a three-dimensional movie with stories", "a weird hybrid about things that I don't think I've really understood yet",

- Fenway Bergamot, who is not the voice of authority anymore ("I decided to accept blowhards"). He also performed a renewed / shortened version of 'Mambo and Bling' in the studio - this version might be known as "the Mambo and Bling without mambo and bling",

- 'Only an Expert' - a "pointed commentary on American society",

- the concert for dogs in Sydney, where "thousands of dogs showed up: they brought their people",

- plus a live performance of one of the most unsettling parts of 'Delusion': the movement which, for the sake of simplicity, I will call 'Mother's Death'.




Here is the show in its entirety, as part of the WNYC Soundcheck archive:






Or you can listen to an edited version of the interview here, on Files on a String, along with two live performances:

• interview part one (audio length: 7 mins 0 secs, file size: 9.63 MB)

• interview part two (audio length: 3 mins 46 secs, file size: 5.18 MB)

• 'Mambo and Bling' on WNYC Soundcheck, 16th of September, 2010 (audio length: 5 mins 16 secs, file size: 7.24 MB)

• 'Mother's Death' (excerpt from 'Delusion') on WNYC Soundcheck, 16th of September, 2010 (audio length: 3 mins 25 secs, file size: 4.69 MB)