Laurie Anderson

New Talk Art!!! Russell & Robert meet LIVING LEGEND Laurie Anderson @laurieandersonofficial, one of America’s most renowned – and daring – creative PIONEERS! Known primarily for her multimedia presentations, she has cast herself in roles as varied as visual artist, composer, poet, photographer, filmmaker, electronics whiz, vocalist, and instrumentalist. 

We discuss her most recent works, as well as her 2015 film 'Heart Of A Dog', a favourite of Russell & Robert's! We learn of her artist residency at NASA and even debate whether animals can make art and discover more about a car opera Laurie wrote involving actual cars honking their horns!

‘O Superman’ launched Anderson’s recording career in 1980, rising to number two on the British pop charts and subsequently appearing on ‘Big Science’, the first of her seven albums on the Warner Brothers label.

Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, ‘Big Science’, will return to vinyl for the first time in 30 years with a new red vinyl edition on Nonesuch Records. In the early 1980s, Laurie Anderson was already respected as a conceptual artist and composer, adept at employing gear both high-tech and homemade in her often violin-based pieces, and she was a familiar figure in the cross-pollinating, Lower Manhattan music-visual art-performance circles from which Philip Glass and David Byrne also emerged. 

While working on her now-legendary seven-hour performance art/theater piece United States, Part I–IV, she cut the spare ‘O Superman (For Massenet)’, an electronic-age update of 19th century French operatic composer Jules Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’, for the tiny New York City indie label 110 Records. In the UK, DJ John Peel picked up a copy of this very limited-edition 33⅓ RPM 7” and spun the eight-minute-plus track on BBC Radio 1. The exposure resulted in an unlikely #2 hit, lots of attention in the press, and a worldwide deal with Warner Bros. Records.

Follow @LaurieAndersonOfficial on Instagram and her record label @NonesuchRecords for links to buy the limited edition red vinyl reissue of Big Science. 

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For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. For all requests, please email [email protected]

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