Laurie Anderson began a four-night residency at London's Barbican Theatre on Wednesday with musical accompaniment from Eyvind Kang on viola, Peter Scherer on keyboards, and Skuli Sverrisson on bass. The Times (UK) gives the performance four stars, with writer Sam Marlowe calling Homeland, the latest piece from the "high priestess of the New York avant-garde," one that is both personal and political, "a passionate and erudite work whose references range from Thomas Paine and Kierkegaard to Aristophanes and Oprah Winfrey" with "twinkling observations on the everyday business of living in the most powerful nation on Earth."

While the political remains at the forefront of Homeland, Marlowe finds that Laurie is "equally riveting when her focus is more intimate. A description of a funeral ... is delicately heartbreaking, and her assertion that we can live inside one another, and bury loved ones in memory, has a poignant simplicity."

Whether commenting on the power wielded by experts in contemporary society or of larger-than-life underwear models, says Marlowe,

Anderson has a compelling presence. Elfin, crop-haired, she speaks in a rhythmic rush, the volume of her mellifluous voice dying away towards the end of each phrase. The effect is part soothing, part unsettling, and entirely hypnotic ... Anderson is a unique talent whose work has a resonance of insistent potency.

To read the review, visit entertainment.timesonline.co.uk. For further tour dates, click here.