William Dart looks back at the career of Laurie Anderson and settles on her album, Landfall, about 2012's devastating Hurricane Sandy. The album features the Kronos Quartet.
(This episode of New Horizons was produced and first broadcast in March 2018)
Photo: NASA Earth Observatory
Here are a selection of the tracks featured in the programme.
1. 'Time To Go'
Back in 1977, Laurie Anderson was nicher than niche. One of the first of her pieces that made it onto vinyl was this song about a guard at the Museum of Modern Art. It appeared on a compilation called New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media alongside tracks by avant-gardists Pauline Oliveros and New Zealander Annea Lockwood.
2. 'O Superman'
This song, which originally appeared on her album Big Science, was a surprise break-out for her - an eight-and-a-half minute song with a somewhat apocalyptic vision made it into Britain's Top 10.
3. 'I Dreamed I Had to Take a Test'
In this song from her magnum opus United States Live, a vast multi-media circus-cum-cabaret from 1983, Anderson drags a section of tape with a recording of her voice attached to her violin bow across a tape head to the obvious delight of the audience at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
4. 'Sharkey's Day'
Guitarist Adrian Belew shows some chops on this song from Mr Heartbreak (1984).
5. 'Strange Perfumes'
From 2010's Homeland album, this song's musical fragrance is as potent as ever. The music demands total surrender as Anderson spins enchantment with Antony Hegarty on backing vocals and a band containing viola, percussion and accordion among other things.
6. 'Nothing Left But Their Names'
The strengths of Laurie Anderson's Landfall lie very much with the words rather than the music. The album comes to a spine-tingling climax with this track, the true heart and soul of the album, in which her voice undergoes computer modification.
Photo: Nonesuch Records
Music Details
'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)
'Time to Go' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson
New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media
(New World)
'O Superman' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson
Big Science
(Warner)
'I Dreamed I had to Take a Test' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson
United States Live
(Warner)
'Sharkey’s Day' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson
Mister Heartbreak
(Warner)
'The Dream Before' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson
Strange Angels
(Warner)
'Strange Perfumes' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson
Homeland
(Nonesuch)
'Flow' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson
Homeland
(Nonesuch)
'Our Street is a Black River' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet
Landfall
(Nonesuch)
'Everything is Floating' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet
Landfall
(Nonesuch)
'Gongs and Bells Sing' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet
Landfall
(Nonesuch)
'We Blame Each Other for Losing' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet
Landfall
(Nonesuch)
'Nothing left but Their Names' (Anderson) – Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet
Landfall
(Nonesuch)
