Laurie Anderson

Active on the New York scene since the 1970s, Laurie Anderson has developed a body of work that sits between experimental music, art pop and multimedia performance. Born in Illinois in 1947 and based in New York from the late 1960s, Anderson first made her mark in contemporary art circuits with performances combining narrative, amplified violin and visual devices, before turning to studio recording. The single O Superman in 1981 brought her wider recognition and led to the album Big Science in 1982, noted for its minimal use of electronics, spoken voice and a detached sense of humor. Subsequent records, such as Mister Heartbreak (1984), Strange Angels (1989) and Bright Red (1994), extended these explorations, blending pop structures, electronic textures and often narrative lyrics focused on technology, language or memory. Anderson has also worked on more narrative or orchestral projects, notably Life on a String (2001), Homeland (2010), the Landfall project with the Kronos Quartet (2018) and Songs from the Bardo (2019), inspired by texts from Tibetan Buddhism. Present in museums, music festivals and concert halls, she has collaborated over time with artists from rock, contemporary composition and the experimental scene, while continuing installation and film work, including the feature Heart of a Dog (2015).