Laurie Anderson Releases Amelia Album Focused on Amelia Earhart’s Final Flight
Laurie Anderson has released her new album, Amelia, on Nonesuch Records. This marks her first new album since 2018’s Grammy-winning Landfall, which won a Grammy Award. Amelia comprises twenty-two tracks that explore the narrative surrounding Amelia Earhart, the pioneering aviator, focusing on her final flight. Anderson composed both the music and lyrics for the album, enlisting the collaboration of the Filharmonie Brno orchestra, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies. Contributing artists include Anohni, Gabriel Cabezas, Rob Moose, Ryan Kelly, Martha Mooke, Marc Ribot, Tony Scherr, Nadia Sirota, and Kenny Wollesen.
Artist: Laurie Anderson
Release Date: 2024-08-30
Genres: Avant-garde, Electronica, Experimental Music
Label: Nonesuch Records
Description: Laurie Anderson releases Amelia, an album inspired by Amelia Earhart’s final flight, featuring orchestral collaboration and contributions from notable artists.
The album, originally premiered in a different form at Carnegie Hall in 2000, has since been updated and performed in various locations across Europe.
Amelia Earhart, recognized for her groundbreaking solo flight across the Atlantic in 1932, vanished in 1937 while attempting to complete a global circumnavigation. The lyrics in Anderson’s Amelia are drawn from various sources, including Earhart’s pilot logs, telegrams to her husband, and Anderson’s imagined thoughts of Earhart during her final hours.
Laurie Anderson is an American artist known for her experimental work across multiple mediums, including music, visual art, performance, and film. Born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois on June 5, 1947, Anderson emerged as a key figure in the avant-garde art scene during the 1970s and 1980s. Her breakthrough came with the release of O Superman in 1981, which unexpectedly became a hit in the UK, reaching number two on the singles chart. Anderson’s body of work includes a wide range of projects that challenge traditional boundaries between art and technology.
Throughout her career, Anderson has been honored with numerous awards. Her collaboration with Hsin-Chien Huang on the virtual reality project La Camera Insabbiata earned the Best VR Experience award at the 2017 Venice Film Festival. In 2018, she published All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essays on Pictures, Language, and Code, an extensive collection of essays and artwork. Recently, Anderson was recognized with the 2024 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2024 Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication, acknowledging her contributions to the arts and science communication.
Anderson’s relationship with Nonesuch Records began in 2001 with the release of Life on a String. Subsequent albums include Live in New York (2002), Homeland (2010), Heart of a Dog (2015), and Landfall (2018). Additionally, Nonesuch reissued her seminal 1982 album Big Science in 2007 for its twenty-fifth anniversary, followed by a vinyl re-release in 2021. Anderson continues to push artistic boundaries, as evidenced by her recent collaboration with the band Sex Mob on the performance piece Let X=X and her upcoming live stage production ARK: United States Part V, set to debut at Aviva Studios in Manchester in November 2024.
Anderson’s work has been exhibited in numerous prestigious institutions, including her large-scale installation Habeas Corpus at New York’s Park Avenue Armory and her expansive exhibition The Weather at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. Her influence on contemporary art and culture is further highlighted by the naming of asteroid 270588 Laurieanderson in her honor by the International Astronomical Union.
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