Vivid LIVE, the two-week festival of music, theater, and visual arts curated by Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed in Sydney, Australia, kicked off last night with Lighting the Sails, a special lighting of the iconic Sydney Opera House sails featuring Anderson's art, which will take place each night for the duration of the festival and through June 20. The Sydney Morning Herald has coverage of last night's opening, including a slide show of the illuminated buildings, at smh.com.au.

This weekend's Vivid LIVE events include performances by Ricky Lee Jones, Japanese punk/metal band Boris, and Lou Reed's Metal Machine Trio, as well as the opening of New York Genius, free exhibition of black-and-white stills curated by Reed from the Magnum Photographic Archive.

Anderson participates in a free lunchtime talk about her career this Sunday at the Playhouse. Her upcoming participation in Vivid LIVE include two performances of Transitory Life; songs from her latest work, Delusion; a night of "slow music," also featuring The Blind Boys of Alabama, My Brightest Diamond, Holly Miranda, Emily Haines of Metric, Doveman, Mark Ribot, and others; and the world premiere of Music for Dogs, a collaboration with Reed.

For more information on Anderson's upcoming performances, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour. You can watch a live web stream of the Opera House and get all the latest information on the festival at vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com.

---

As Australia's Same Same reminds its readers, Nonesuch launched a video series earlier this week featuring Laurie Anderson's male alter ego, Fenway Bergamot, in the countdown to the June 22 release of Anderson's new album, Homeland. We'll post a new video every Tuesday through release day at nonesuch.com/media.

Homeland, Anderson's first studio album in nearly a decade, is due out on Nonesuch June 22. Uncut magazine gives it four stars. Reviewer Adam Sweeting calls it "a hauntingly powerful set of pieces, couching barbed, provocative lyrics in music vastly more affecting than its apparent simplicity seems to warrant." The album is available for pre-order in the Nonesuch Store.

In its review of Homeland, Q magazine says "Anderson’s breadth of vision remains unparalleled." It picks the album track "Only an Expert" as one of this month's Q50 Essential Tracks and call it a highlight of the album: "a bitingly satirical, genuinely funny, quietly angry and surprisingly danceable dissection on the very notion of subservience to expertise." The song is available now in the Nonesuch Store as a vinyl 12" single, with the non-album track "Pictures and Things," featuring Antony Hegarty, on the flip side.