Name: Big Science
Brand: Laurie Anderson

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

0075597918069

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

[r18212281]

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Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Heavyweight 140 Gram Vinyl.

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Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2021-04-09

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Warner Music Group

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / red

7599236742

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2001-09-14

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Laurie Anderson

Genre GB

Modern Composition

Label GB

Nonesuch

Laurie Anderson is an American performance artist and composer, born on June 5, 1947 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Although she initially trained in the visual arts, her work incorporates a wide range of mediums including graphics, lighting, sculpture, mime, film, speech, music and electronics. By 1976, her performances were featured prominently in museums and concert venues across Europe and North America. Anderson's unique performances draw elements from storytelling, theatre, dance and popular entertainment.

In 1981, Anderson achieved unexpected crossover success with her single "O Superman," which reached number two on the British pop charts. This brought her a level of fame usually unavailable to avant-garde artists. Throughout her career, she has blended autobiographical and historical elements to create an idiosyncratic collection of words, sounds and images downloaded from various social archives.

Anderson's innovative approach to artistry has earned her greater visibility than most composers of her generation. Her work has influenced a diverse range of artists such as Meredith Monk and Brian Eno. She continues to push boundaries in the world of performance art.

Nonesuch is a US record label that was created in 1964 as a budget label for classical releases. It eventually expanded to include adventurous music from around the globe and world-premiere recordings of contemporary composers. Nonesuch has gone through various ownership changes over the years, including being acquired by Warner Communications in 1970 and becoming a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records in 2004.

Under the leadership of Jac Holzman, Nonesuch was established as a budget label for classical releases licensed from large record companies in Britain and France. Designed by Bill Harvey, the packaging emphasized affordability with releases marketed as "Recordings at the Price of a Quality Paperback."

In 1970, Nonesuch became part of Warner Communications (Kinney/WEA) and continued to release music under its own name along with other Elektra-based labels like Elektra and Asylum Records. The merger between Elektra and Atlantic labels in 2004 resulted in Nonesuch becoming a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records within the Warner Music Group.

Our curated collection of essential albums on vinyl, CD, and tape at Rough Trade.

Rough Trade Essential

Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, Big Science. In 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 United States, Part I–IV, she cut the spare ‘O Superman (For Massenet)’, an electronic-age update of 19th century 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.

At the time of its original release, the NME wrote of Big Science, ‘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, Big Science anticipated the tech-savvy beats, anything-goes instrumentation and sample-based nature of much contemporary electronic and dance music. On the album’s 25th anniversary, Uncut noted, ‘The broader themes of alienation and disconnection still resonate, while Anderson’s use of loops and traditional/synthesized instrumentation is prescient.’

Big Science

Music GB

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