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Laurie Anderson was raised in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago. But when she was composing the material that would become Big Science, she was a New York-based performance artist who was spending a lot of time playing in Europe. "I always felt that Europeans saw the United States as a version of their own future," she said in the notes that accompanied the album's second CD edition. Nearly four decades after its release, that convergence of distanced and Midwestern perspectives seems remarkably prescient. The album begins with a plane crash and ends with a building burning down, which is hard to beat as a metaphor for contemporary life's endless loop of disaster. In between, Anderson tells stories that confront people who talk like they've stepped out of old TV shows being confronted by a technologically advancing world that feels alien and, if you pay attention to the man behind the curtain, quite disturbing. While the harmonized vocal loop that runs through "O Superman (For Massenet)," the novelty hit that launched her career, sounds charmingly primitive now, the picture it paints of a corporate surveillance environment that seems pretty confident that it knows you better than you know yourself feels like life today. And since life in such a scenario can feel like a waking dream, the tracks that used keyboard ambience and spoken narration to evoke dream states haven't aged a bit even though the technology used to make them has. But Big Science is not relentlessly dystopian; the deadpan humor and understated wonder in Anderson's delivery soften its sting. © Bill Meyer/Qobuz
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Peter Gordon, Tenor Saxophone - Laurie Anderson, Organ, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - ROMA BARAN, Organ, Bass - Bill Obrecht, Alto Saxophone - David Van Tieghem, Drums
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
PERRY HOBERMAN, Contributor - Laurie Anderson, Lyricist, Contributor, Writer, MainArtist
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
Laurie Anderson, Composer, Violin, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - David Van Tieghem, Drums - Rufus Harley, Bagpipes
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
Laurie Anderson, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - Rufus Harley, Bagpipes
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
PERRY HOBERMAN, Contributor, Claps - Laurie Anderson, Contributor, Violin, Vocals, Writer, Claps, MainArtist - ROMA BARAN, Contributor, Claps - David Van Tieghem, Marimba
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
PERRY HOBERMAN, Flute, Saxophone - Laurie Anderson, Composer, Vocals, Vocoder, MainArtist - ROMA BARAN, Organ
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
PERRY HOBERMAN, Flute, Piccolo, Background Vocals - Laurie Anderson, Organ, Violin, Vocals, Writer, Whistle, MainArtist - ROMA BARAN, Accordion, Whistle - David Van Tieghem, Drums, Percussion - Chuck Fisher, Alto Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone - Richard Cohen, Bassoon, Bass Clarinet
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
PERRY HOBERMAN, Claps - Laurie Anderson, Composer, Organ, Vocals, Writer, Marimba, Claps, Vocoder, MainArtist - ROMA BARAN, Claps - David Van Tieghem, Musicians - George Lewis, Trombone
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
PERRY HOBERMAN, Contributor, Claps - Laurie Anderson, Contributor, Organ, Vocals, Writer, Claps, MainArtist - ROMA BARAN, Contributor, Claps - David Van Tieghem, Musicians
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
D. Sharpe, Drums - PERRY HOBERMAN, Flute, Saxophone - Laurie Anderson, Violin, Vocals, Writer, MainArtist - ROMA BARAN, Organ, Vocoder
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
Album Description
Laurie Anderson was raised in Glen Ellyn, a suburb of Chicago. But when she was composing the material that would become Big Science, she was a New York-based performance artist who was spending a lot of time playing in Europe. "I always felt that Europeans saw the United States as a version of their own future," she said in the notes that accompanied the album's second CD edition. Nearly four decades after its release, that convergence of distanced and Midwestern perspectives seems remarkably prescient. The album begins with a plane crash and ends with a building burning down, which is hard to beat as a metaphor for contemporary life's endless loop of disaster. In between, Anderson tells stories that confront people who talk like they've stepped out of old TV shows being confronted by a technologically advancing world that feels alien and, if you pay attention to the man behind the curtain, quite disturbing. While the harmonized vocal loop that runs through "O Superman (For Massenet)," the novelty hit that launched her career, sounds charmingly primitive now, the picture it paints of a corporate surveillance environment that seems pretty confident that it knows you better than you know yourself feels like life today. And since life in such a scenario can feel like a waking dream, the tracks that used keyboard ambience and spoken narration to evoke dream states haven't aged a bit even though the technology used to make them has. But Big Science is not relentlessly dystopian; the deadpan humor and understated wonder in Anderson's delivery soften its sting. © Bill Meyer/Qobuz
About the album
- 1 disc(s) - 10 track(s)
- Total length: 00:44:38
- Main artist: Laurie Anderson
- Composer: Laurie Anderson
- Label: Nonesuch
- Genre: Pop/Rock Pop
-
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo
2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc. 2007 Nonesuch Records, Inc.
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