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Laurie Anderson

The U.S. performance artist, musician and film director Laurie Anderson (*1947) is particularly known for her song "O Superman" (1981). It reached number 2 in the British singles charts and also appeared on her first album "Big Science" (1982).

Laurie Anderson studied art history in California and New York and received her Master's degree in Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1972. Beginning in the 1970s, she began to establish herself as a performance artist. She developed various instruments, mostly by modifying or augmenting traditional instruments with electronic sound generators or pickups. In 1977, she designed the Viofonograph, a violin with a mounted 7″ single and magnetic tapes over which she stroked the violin bow. She used the instruments for her recordings and performances and became a pioneer in electronic music.

In her performances, Anderson works with video and multimedia installations, bringing to bear her body, gestures, facial expressions, voice, and the violin in which she is trained. Her performances tell stories and have been multimedia pioneers.

Laurie Anderson, an early film director, released the film Heart of a Dog in 2015. In it, she processed the death of her mother, the death of her husband, and the death of her dog against the backdrop of social developments after September 11, 2001.

She released several albums, developed the stage project Songs And Stories For Moby Dick, with which she went on tour in 1999, participated four times in the documenta in Kassel, was a member of the jury of the 41st Berlin International Film Festival in 1991 and was appointed to the competition jury of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival in 2016.

Laurie Anderson released the following studio albums and records, among others:

    1982: Big Science
    1983: United States Live (5-LP Boxset)
    1984: Mister Heartbreak
    1986: Home of the Brave (soundtrack)
    1989: Strange Angels
    1994: Bright Red
    1995: The Ugly One with the Jewels (live, reading with music)
    2000: Talk Normal - The Laurie Anderson Anthology (compilation)
    2001: Life on a String
    2002: Live at Town Hall New York City Sept 19-20, 2001
    2010: Homeland
    2015: Heart of a Dog (Soundtrack)
    2017: Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet: Landfall (Nonesuch Records)

Works for listening