{"product_id":"laurie-anderson-big-science","title":"Laurie Anderson - Big Science","description":"\u003cp\u003eLaurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, \u003cem\u003eBig Science\u003c\/em\u003e, will return to vinyl for the first time in 30 years with a new red vinyl edition on Nonesuch Records.  The release includes the re-mastered original album first released on CD for the 25\u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e anniversary in 2007.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_8989065wordsection1\"\u003eIn the early 1980s, Laurie Anderson was already respected as a conceptual artist and composer, adept at employing gear both high-tech and homemade in her often violin-based pieces, and she was a familiar figure in the cross-pollinating, Lower Manhattan music-visual art-performance circles from which Philip Glass and David Byrne also emerged.  While working on her now-legendary seven-hour performance art\/theater piece \u003ci\u003eUnited States, Part I–IV\u003c\/i\u003e, she cut the spare ‘O Superman (For Massenet)’, an electronic-age update of 19\u003csup\u003eth \u003c\/sup\u003ecentury French operatic composer Jules Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’, for the tiny New York City indie label 110 Records.  In the UK, DJ John Peel picked up a copy of this very limited-edition 33⅓ RPM 7” and spun the eight-minute-plus track on BBC Radio 1.  The exposure resulted in an unlikely #2 hit, lots of attention in the press, and a worldwide deal with Warner Bros. Records. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_8989065wordsection1\"\u003e’Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.\u003cbr\u003eAnd when justice is gone, there's always force.\u003cbr\u003eAnd when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom! \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_8989065wordsection1\"\u003eAt the time of its original release, the \u003cem\u003eNME\u003c\/em\u003e wrote of \u003cem\u003eBig Science\u003c\/em\u003e, ‘There’s a dream-like, subconscious quality about her songs which helps them work at deeper, secret levels of the psyche.’  With instrumentation ranging from tape loops to found sounds to bag pipes, \u003cem\u003eBig Science\u003c\/em\u003e anticipated the tech-savvy beats, anything-goes instrumentation and sample-based nature of much contemporary electronic and dance music.  On the album’s 25\u003csup\u003eth\u003c\/sup\u003e anniversary, \u003ci\u003eUncut \u003c\/i\u003enoted, ‘The broader themes of alienation and disconnection still resonate, while Anderson’s use of loops and traditional\/synthesized instrumentation is prescient.’\u003cs\u003e \u003c\/s\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_8989065wordsection1\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"x_8989065A3\"\u003e“In the ’70s I traveled a lot,” Anderson recounts.  “I worked on a tobacco farm in Kentucky, hitchhiked to the North Pole, lived in a yurt in Chiapas, and worked on a media commune.  I had my own romantic vision of the road.  My plan was to make a portrait of the country.  \u003ci\u003eBig Science\u003c\/i\u003e, the first part of the puzzle, eventually became part two of \u003ci\u003eUnited States I–IV (Transportation, Politics, Money, Love)\u003c\/i\u003e.  My goal was to be not just the narrator but also the outsider, the stranger.  Although I was fascinated by the United States, this portrait was also about how the country looked from a distance.  I was performing a lot in Europe, where American culture was simultaneously booed and cheered.  But the portrait was also a picture of a culture inventing a digital world and learning to live in it.  \u003ci\u003eBig Science\u003c\/i\u003e was about technology, size, industrialization, shifting attitudes toward authority, and individuality. It was sometimes alarmist, picturing the country as a burning building, a plane crash.  Alongside the techno was the apocalyptic.  The absurd.  The everyday.  It was also a series of short stories about odd characters – hatcheck clerks and pilots, preachers, drifters and strangers.  There was something about Massenet’s aria ‘O Souverain’ – which inspired ‘O Superman’ – that almost stopped my heart.  The pauses, the melody.  “O souverain, ô juge, ô père” (O Lord, o judge, o father).  A prayer about empire, ambition, and loss.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"x_8989065wordsection1\"\u003eLaurie Anderson is one of America's most renowned – and daring – creative pioneers.  Her work, which encompasses music, visual art, poetry, film, and photography, has challenged and delighted audiences around the world for over 40 years.  Anderson released her first album with Nonesuch Records in 2001, the critically lauded \u003cem\u003eLife on a String\u003c\/em\u003e.  Her subsequent releases on the label include \u003cem\u003eLive in New York\u003c\/em\u003e (2002), \u003cem\u003eHomeland\u003c\/em\u003e (2010), the soundtrack to Anderson’s acclaimed film \u003cem\u003eHeart of a Dog\u003c\/em\u003e (2015), and her Grammy-winning collaboration with Kronos Quartet, \u003ci\u003eLandfall\u003c\/i\u003e (2018).  Additionally, Anderson’s virtual-reality film\u003ci\u003e La Camera Insabbiata\u003c\/i\u003e, with Hsin-Chien Huang, won the 2017 Venice Film Festival Award for Best VR Experience, and, in 2018, Skira Rizzoli published her book \u003cem\u003eAll the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language and Code\u003c\/em\u003e, the most comprehensive collection of her artwork to date.\u003ci\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"South Records Ltd","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":64322894233977,"sku":null,"price":13.29,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0973\/1463\/6153\/files\/laurie_d9798707-1783-4fa8-83e9-36595a86488a.jpg?v=1787903820","url":"https:\/\/vinyl-relic.com\/products\/laurie-anderson-big-science","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}