The First Time With... Series 23 - 3. Laurie Anderson

THE FIRST TIME WITH... SERIES 23 - 3. LAURIE ANDERSON (320kbs-m4a/132mb/58mins)
BBC Radio 6 Music broadcast: 14th March 2021

Laurie Anderson, the prolific American performance artist, composer, musician and writer chats in-depth to Matt Everitt about the pivotal musical moments that have shaped her life and career. As an electronic music pioneer Laurie has invented several devices from voice filters to the 'talking stick' which she has used in her many recordings and performance art shows.

Laurie began studying classical violin at the age of five and later performed with the Chicago Youth Symphony. She left her native Chicago and in 1972 obtained a masters degree in sculpture from Columbia University in New York City.

One of Laurie's early performance art pieces was 'Automotive' for which she orchestrated car horns and in 'Duets on Ice', she wore ice skates frozen in blocks of ice, playing a duet with herself on an altered violin, replacing the bow hair with pre-recorded audiotape and the strings with a tape head. The piece ended as soon as the ice melted. Laurie came to rely on a driving rock beat as a backdrop to many of her word-oriented pieces and she became widely known outside the art world in 1981 with the eight-minute long single "O Superman", which reached number two in the UK singles chart. The piece was part of a larger multimedia stage work 'United States I-IV' and was included on the album 'Big Science' in 1982.

Laurie has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme, curated the Meltdown Festival at London's Royal Festival Hall in 1997, and became NASA's first artist-in-residence in 2002. Laurie collaborated with the Kronos Quartet on 'Landfall', inspired by Hurricane Sandy, which won a Grammy Award in 2018.

Beginning in the early 90s, Laurie was in a relationship with musician Lou Reed; they were married from 2008 until his death in 2013.

Laurie Anderson - It Tango [Warner Bros.]
Chubby Checker - Pony Time [Real Gone Music]
Unknown - Unknown strings
Jean Knight - Mr Big Stuff [Stax]
Jim Davies - Is Anybody Home?
Brian Wilson & Laurie Anderson - They're Marching Along (Demo) [Local Reduction Institute]
Laurie Anderson - Time To Go [Nemo Productions]
Laurie Anderson - Is Anybody Home [Nemo Productions]
Laurie Anderson - It's Not The Bullet That Kills You (It's The Hole) [Holly Solomon Gallery]
Philip Glass - Music In Twelve Parts, Part 1 [Nonesuch/WBR]
Placido Domingo - Ah! Tout Est Bien Fini-O Souverain
Laurie Anderson - O Superman [Warner Music TV]
Brian Eno - Fickle Sun (III) I'm Set Free
Lou Reed - Men Of Good Fortune [Flexipop]
Arvo Pärt - Frantres For Eight Cellos