Laurie Anderson |
 |
|
Tue. April 20.1999 8:56 PM EDT |
||
Laurie Anderson Takes Literary Classic 'Moby Dick' On TourNew York performer still cutting songs and adding new material for production. by Staff Writer Chris Nelson |
||||
|
||||
 |
Laurie Anderson plans to record companion LP for "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick." ( ) |
|
||
Performance artist Laurie Anderson is wrapping up rehearsals this week for her new multimedia production "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick," which she will take on a mini tour of the U.S. beginning this month. The five-person production is
"I had to figure out how to get the flavor of what [Melville] was doing and translate it into sound and image and time and media," Anderson said. "It's been pretty daunting." On Tuesday (April 20), the New York performer said she was still cutting songs and adding new material for the production, which debuts April 29 in Dallas. The show will feature both singing and acting, along with a number of visual projections wrapped around three-dimensional objects. In addition, Anderson invented a new electronic instrument for the show, called the Talking Stick, which is harpoon-shaped and manipulates sound on a computer according to the performer's motion with the stick. "I would take a phrase or a word and build a song around it, using things that I like from the book," Anderson said. "There's one story, which is a guys-go-fishing story, about the crew and this and that. And then you have this almost phantom crew of all the other people on the [ship] Pequod, like Noah and Jonah and Job. ... To me those are just as interesting [as the primary characters]." While Anderson, 41, had a minor hit with the 1981 song "O Superman" (RealAudio excerpt), she also is known as the performer of such intricate compositions as the multi-hour "United States," released on four CDs as United States, Live (1984). This summer she will record a companion album for "Songs and Stories from Moby Dick," which she describes as a separate examination of the novel rather than a traditional cast recording. Laurie Anderson Tour Dates: April 29-May 1; Dallas, Texas, Titas McFarlin Auditorium May 12-16, 19-23; Philadelphia, Pa., Prince Music Theater June 3-4; Charleston, S.C., Spoleto Festival TBA; Ann Arbor, Mich., University of Michigan Power Center October 5,7,9-10,12,14,16; New York, N.Y., Brooklyn Academy of Music October 21-23; Los Angeles, Calif., Royce Hall October 26-30; Berkeley, Calif., Zellerbach Auditorium |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  |
 |
 |
Receive Free Music News Daily Via Email |
|
Receive Free Artist Updates Via Email for Laurie Anderson |
|
All news for Laurie Anderson |
|
Breaking Music News |
 |
Add VH1 News to My Yahoo |
|
