Laurie Anderson: Homeland Tour 2007, October 22nd, Sydney Opera House, NSW

Most musicians tour new material to sell a newly released album, but Laurie Anderson does the reverse. She tours the new material to prepare for the recording of the album. Instead of the concert reproducing the album, the album is a memento of music perfected through performance. (And, already, this is highly polished material.)

The fact that Laurie Anderson fans approach her concerts expecting new and previously unheard material is proof that her shows are closer to performance art -- to theatre even -- than rock concert.

In fact, the only CD being promoted on this tour was "Big Science", recently remastered and re-released after a quarter of a century.

Anderson's "Homeland" contains some of her lushest and most lyrical songs -- up there with her third studio set Strange Angels from 1989 -- but it also contains some of her most political material this side of 'O Superman', the very first hit. But it's not so much propaganda as sad satire.

Anderson has a soaring -- and somewhat bent -- imagination. Whether she's singing parables of life before the earth had formed (when billions of birds ruled the sky) or about the godlike creatures on our billboards or the ghostly presence of her father beside her, she captivates with her voice and her dreamy skill with words.

Musically, the new material is simple and spacious, mostly strings and synths performing uncluttered, falling figures. This culminates -- after a dozen songs over ninety-odd minutes -- with some majestic bass chords and a flock of violins circling over our heads in vast formations.

The encore on this night took the audience by surprise. What more could be added? Anderson played the second great hit from the first set, 'Let X=X'.

MORE SPECS:
Recorded from the 6th row, close to the right speaker stack with Churchsound Cardioid Microphone System STC-9000
> Sony M1 DAT recorder > M Audio Delta Audiophile via S/PDIF > Cooledit Pro 2.0 > DVD (.flac)

Laurie Anderson words and music, vocals, one of a kind violin/viola, keyboards and samples
Eyvind Kang (viola)
Jamshied Sharifi (keyboards)
Skuli Sverrisson (bass, guitars)

Disk 1

01. The Lark
02. Why Do People Hate Us
03. Transitory Life
04. Only An Expert
05. Maybe If I Fall
06. Short Fall
07. Tuvan Loop
08. The Underwear Gods
09. Out Of The Heart
10. Calling Them Up
11. Perfect
12. Pictures And Things (Male Voice)
with short musicians intro

Disk 2

13. Bodies In Motion
14. Sky Flying Birds
15. Lost Art Of Conversation
16. No Man's Land
encore
17 Let X=X It Tango

DOWNLOAD PT. 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?yn352umz90m

DOWNLOAD PT. 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?6dwrzxl89zm

DOWNLOAD PT. 3: http://www.mediafire.com/?24yvvxobupn

Artist infos at www.laurieanderson.com
Fan forum at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/laurieandersonclub

Reverend Frank Wright: Live in Ulm, March 4th, 1990

Frank Wright (09.July 1935, Grenada, Mississippi - 17.May 1990, Wuppertal).

Difficult to believe there exists a recording just two months before Rev. Frank Wright flew from this earth. This tape is not at all widely circulated... the quality of the performance represented by this trio is fantastic, and unlike anything I've experienced from his compelling legacy of mysterious communications. Sonic treatment/effects to the tenor saxophone are tasteful and well-manicured, dripping and dissolving into the contours of Wollny's sonic framework as electric bass guitar. The drums are definitely the caboose for this ensemble - highly charged, yet delicate, weaving a fine thread whose breath gently enshrouds the lyric of FW's tenor saxophone. The overall motion of this performance (including the audience) gave me the sensation of being in the backseat of a flying car, with Frank at the wheel, in transit from the earth as it is now to a glimpse of a world in a state of recovery - full of hope, humor, and healing. Thanks go out to Hannes, for sharing his tape of the event... blessings!

Reverend Frank Wright live in Ulm, 04.March 1990
Frank Wright.....ts,acl,voice
Ar.penck.....drums
Frank Wollny.....el.bass

Ulm/D, Galerie Holmat the occasion of a vernissage of ar.penck´s(aka Ralf Winkler) graphical works

One set only.1) 15:402) 04:593) 07:504) 15:105) 02:25total: 46:08

Unusual setting: the venue was - and still is - a gallery for contemporary art in Ulm, Germany, still operating, but in other rooms now.

If interested, see: http://www.galerie-holm.de/index.html

They started doing this kind of thing in 1989, a year before this concert.
Very crowded, very difficult to record (standing resp. constantly being moved around), with definitely more the population of an art vernissage rather than a jazz-crowd, but still worthwile and very special (i am quite sure this is the only existing recording).

source: sony WMD6C / mic. ECM929LT / aud.cass. sony UX-S90 lineage: orig. master-cass.

Download this show http://www.mediafire.com/?8x3ynnuncjc ENJOY!!!

A Human Music

"The way I play, I couldn't do it every night. One reason is that we use a much broader format to the music. In other words, if you're playing Melancholy Baby you have a different attitude towards what you're trying to express. You know exactly what the key, the changes and the melody are all about, in some kind of way. If you do that every night, it's like social survival. You know, it's just a matter of punching the clock so you can get off. But some people don't believe that's music (and I'm one of them). I think that music has to do with trying to give everybody the full pleasure of the opportunity to hear and feel whatever someone does musically. You shouldn't ever fit music to a social class. Just because they don't work in a bank or something, it doesn't mean that they can't appreciate music. You're a human being, projecting human emotions. The music should try to be as sincere as you can express, whatever it is that has meaning to you and to people. And the more human that is, the more meaningful it is."
-- Ornette Coleman (from an interview one day in 1968)