Laurie Anderson's performances at Vivid LIVE, the festival she and her husband, Lou Reed, have curated in Sydney, Australia, continue through the weekend, including the multi-artist Slow Music Night, the canine-friendly Music for Dogs, and Day for Night Movies, a marathon screening set to live scores. Pink Paper gives four stars to Anderson's forthcoming album, Homeland, full of "beguiling, beautiful and mysterious listens" and "spine-chilling moments."
Laurie Anderson's performances at Vivid LIVE, the festival she and her husband, Lou Reed, have curated in Sydney, Australia, continue through the weekend. After performances of her Transitory Life and selections from her new work, Delusion, earlier in the week, Anderson performs in the centerpiece event of the festival, joining artists like the Blind Boys of Alabama, My Brightest Diamond, Emily Haines of Metric, Doveman, Mark Ribot, and others on stage at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for the Slow Music Night tonight. For the concert, each artist uses the idea of "slow" as a starting point, with Anderson and Reed leading an evening of collaborative music-making.
Saturday morning, on the northern boardwalk outside the Opera House, the festival curators will play for a decidedly different audience when they give the world premiere of Anderson's Music for Dogs, a piece that has already seen coverage from news organizations the world over, from the New York Times and TIME magazine to the Guardian and BBC News. The event is free and open to all dogs on leads and their companions. Given all the rain Sydney has had this week, it's worth noting that the wet weather contingency venue is under the Sydney Opera House vehicle concourse. Anderson talks about Music for Dogs and its inspiration, her own beloved dog, Lollabelle, in a video at sydneyoperahouse.com.
Anderson's last scheduled Vivid LIVE performance is Sunday night at the Playhouse during Day for Night Movies, a marathon screening of documentaries, experimental art films, classics, and more with live scores and performances from Anderson, Reed, and other festival artists.
For more information on these and all the festival events, visit vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com. For other upcoming performances from Laurie Anderson, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
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To pre-order a copy of her forthcoming Nonesuch release, Homeland, her first studio album in nearly a decade, head to the Nonesuch Store, where you can also pick up a copy of the 12" vinyl single "Only an Expert," out now.
British magazine Pink Paper gives the album four stars, noting the "beguiling, beautiful and mysterious listens" featured therein. "Never an artist known for sentimentality or outbursts of passion," says reviewer Richard Morris, "Anderson nevertheless manages to convey her sadness and anger at the War on Terror and its ongoing struggles," leading to "many spine-chilling moments" on the album. Morris concludes: "Homeland makes you very glad Laurie Anderson is still making music, still totally unafraid to tackle issues other artists run a mile from." Read the review at pinkpaper.com.
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