Landfall
Part string quartet, part radio play, part sound installation, Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet’s *Landfall* takes us on a journey through the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which battered the Caribbean and the mainland United States in October 2012. Anderson is a thoughtful sound artist, blending electronic and acoustic music with voice narration to tell her tale of loss and destruction. Poignant moments include “Thunder Continues in the Aftermath,” a haunting echo of the departing storm with stunning digital effects, and the vivid, spine-tingling “Helicopters Hang Over Downtown.” The simple, narrated “Everything Is Floating” transforms tragedy into unexpected beauty.
Laurie Anderson’s collaboration with the San Francisco-based string quartet presents a powerful, elegiac cycle of songs that show how human memory can be stronger than catastrophe.
The most destructive Atlantic hurricane inspires this beautifully-measured collaboration between two venerable avant garde artists.
Also: Various Artists – The Voyager Golden Record, Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet, Wild Beasts, Belle And Sebastian and I’m With Her
Often, when Laurie Anderson's music finds favor with critics, it's the former they praise.
The composer’s song cycle on the 2015 storm that devastated New York has the power to make us shiver with empathy. Plus the verdict on other contemporary music releases this month
Anderson’s detached and fraying vocals capture the sense of fate marching mankind toward a cliff.