"Hello Ondarock - Laurie Anderson wrote - I should say I never do email interviews – to me they have no dynamism. They sound like Chat gpt...but in this case I’m making an exception since time is short. So please excuse the rote answers".
The American artist introduces us to her latest projects, including “Let X=X”, her new tour, which sees her together with the formidable jazz band Sexmob led by Steven Bernstein (wind instruments), with Briggan Krauss (sax, guitar), Tony Scherr (bass), Kenny Wollesen (percussion) and Doug Wieselman (guitar and horns). A performance made of pop, literature and avant-garde theatre, which she will now bring to Italy for two shows: 16 November 2023 at the Teatro Comunale, Carpi (Modena) and 17 November at the Santa Chiara Auditorium in Trento. "A Great show with great musician and a lot of improvisations", she says. That's our email interview.
The American artist introduces us to her latest projects, including “Let X=X”, her new tour, which sees her together with the formidable jazz band Sexmob led by Steven Bernstein (wind instruments), with Briggan Krauss (sax, guitar), Tony Scherr (bass), Kenny Wollesen (percussion) and Doug Wieselman (guitar and horns). A performance made of pop, literature and avant-garde theatre, which she will now bring to Italy for two shows: 16 November 2023 at the Teatro Comunale, Carpi (Modena) and 17 November at the Santa Chiara Auditorium in Trento. "A Great show with great musician and a lot of improvisations", she says. That's our email interview.
In 2024 you will premiere your new work "Ark" at the Manchester International Festival. Can you tell us about this project? There will be also another new record?
I’m in the middle of making ARK so I can’t really predict what it’s going to look like. At each workshop it has a new shape, new music, new visuals. I’ll probably make a record related to this - maybe a film too.
I’m in the middle of making ARK so I can’t really predict what it’s going to look like. At each workshop it has a new shape, new music, new visuals. I’ll probably make a record related to this - maybe a film too.
We chose your album "Big Science" (1982) among our Music Milestones. So how that album was conceived from the very beginning and what was its spirit? Do you feel you were somehow prophetic with those apocalyptic visions regarding current society and all the events occurred in recent years?
I made that record as part of a portrait of the United States. I made it because I was spending a lot of time in Europe which was a better place to make experimental music and theater at the time. The United States was quite conservative then. But many people asked me, “how can you live in a place like that?” The answer turned out to be eight hours long and with the multimedia piece called “United States 1-4” which “Big Science" was part of.
The New York Times called you "America's heartland affectionately alienated from itself". Do you recognize yourself in this definition?
Self alienation has always been my goal as a meditator and I believe I’m also affectionate- or I aspire to be anyway.
Recently the Moderna Museet in Stockholm dedicated to you a personal exhibition – "Looking Into A Mirror Sideways" (2023) – an amazing show with past and unreleased works. The first piece of art the visitor could meet in the space was your performance "Drum Dance" extracted by the film "Home of the Brave" (1986). In which way do you think that piece may represent, synthesize and epitomize your multidisciplinary art practice?
I guess I see myself as a musical instrument. I also see myself as a camera and projector which is probably why I really enjoy doing virtual reality. The involvement of the body in technology is something that is, and has been very appealing to me.
Why have you been interested in creating original customized instruments that were hybridized with new media? Such as the Viophonograph, the Tape Bow Violin, the Digital Violin... Which was your process in experimenting these new music devices?
Each of these projects were inspired by ways that the body and technology, overlap, in terms of gesture and performance. It’s like the way design of cars conform to our eyes hands and feet.
What is your first drive when you conceive and create a piece of art? Is it the storytelling, an image, a concept, a feeling, or a mix of different things? Has this changed in time and, if yes, how?
Each time I start something new it has a different starting point -it may be a color. It may be a phrase. It may be certain kind of puzzle- something I want to unwrap. Fortunately, for me, I am a multimedia artist and can use many different starting points from various senses.
Your practice include, connect and interlaced painting, photography, video, and film. How does the visual dimension contribute to your process of composing music?
Recently, I was looking at medieval polyphonic scores. I love choirs from this era. I decided to use the scores in unexpected ways, and that is been exhilarating for me.
You anticipated the relationship between artist and multimedia. How do you approach artificial intelligence (A.I)? And what about virtual reality? As in "To the Moon"...
AI is a wonderful tool for artists a little bit less so for academics. It’s very useful for mundane marketing purposes and quite dangerous as far as social media and opinion based media go.
You turned to A.I. to create a text engine that was able to write by combining your style and Lou Reed's style. Ten years have passed since his death. What is the most important thing that the experience of living with Lou has given to you?
His enthusiasm for life and music continue to inspire me every day.
We read about your craziest dream of creating a multimedia theme park, which you were supposed to build in Barcelona in the Nineties together with Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno. There is still time though, would you like to try and do it again?
I’m actually, quite glad we never made it because there is nothing as depressing as an out of date techno Park and of course these things are out of date in about two weeks.
