October. 1989 -- - - • -' • -=== ® BROOKLYN ACADEMY OF MUSIC NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL SPONSORED BY PHILIP MORRIS COMPANIES INC ~-- - §;~~~~~;~~§~--~ · ~~-· -·~ Brooklyn Academy of Music NEXT WAVE Festival Sponsored by Philip Morris Companies. Inc. October. 1989 Volume 7. No. I CONTENTS Singing a New Song: An Interview with Laurie Anderson by Jody Dalton .................................................. 3 Rete/lings: The Nursery and Household Tales of the Brothers Crimm by Peter M. Rojcewicz ..... ....................................... 8 Can we plan a BAMscape? by Bonnie Sue Stein ..... ... .... ....... ...... ........ ..... ....... 13 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party: The Oawwali Music of the Sufis by Amy Mereson ... .. .. .. ..... ...... .... ....... ... ...... ... 19 Shakespeare Plays a Solo by )ames Leverett .... .. .. ... ............... ..... ... .. ....... 2 2 Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground by Andy Warhol and Pat Hackett ............... ................. .. 2 5 Finding New Markers: The Choreography of Bebe Miller by Robert Sandia ........................................... .. .. 28 Cover: Bebe Miller In a photograph The NEXT WAVE Festival is produced by the that will form part of Robert Flynt's Brooklyn Academy of Music. 30 Lafayette setting for her new work, Allies, photo by Robert Flynt Avenue. Brooklyn. New York 11217 ON THE NEXT WAVE is published by the Humanities Program of the BAM NEXT WAVE Festival. Editor: Roger W. Oliver Associate Editor: Rory MacPherson Design: Jon Crow/Advance Graphic NEXT WAVE logo design: Valerie Pettis + DOUBLESPACE © 1989 by the Brooklyn Academy of Music • Laurie Anderson, photo by Beatrlz Schiller Singing a New Song: L aurie Anderson is a born sto· mixed printed words. photographic ryteller who keeps reinventing the images and recorded music to set campfire. She has replaced the off chains of associations in the lis­ backdrop of trees and stars with tener/viewer's mind. In one of her slides and films. and the counter­ earliest performances. she played An Interview point of crickets and frogs with that violin on a New York street corner of digital synthesizers. Her while standing in ice skates embed­ audiences. rather than sitting on ded in a block of ice. Gradually her with Laurie logs or blankets. sit in the darkness performances incorporated other of rock arenas and opera houses. elements such as projections and Anderson But as with any good late-night sto­ monologues. These pieces were ryteller. Laurie Anderson's magic is anthologized into United States. in her own warm . intimate voice Part 1-4. which premiered at BAM which draws the listener into unex­ in 198 3 and established Anderson by Jody Dalton pected tales of skewed reality. as a leader of contemporary per­ Anderson has been experiment­ formance. ing with the relationship between Critical to Anderson's success was words and images for some time. In the attention of Warner Brothers the early 70s she worked in concep­ Records which released a single of tual art. creating installations which "0 Superman" in 1981 that became 3 Laurie Anderson, photo by Johan Elber a hit single in England and sold system was going to be working. A couple of people in the MIDI set­ over 150.000 copies. Anderson has up. a house engineer. three projec­ since made four albums for the So what does it become? There tionists. a technical director. a stage label. including a complete record­ are thousands of slides. There's manager and a lighting director. It's ing of United States. Because much you, your keyboard and micro­ around ten people. Perry Hober­ of her later music was criticized as phones. man. the visual director. has been derivative of United States­ really helpful at tracking down sys­ especially her last album. Home of Yeah. there are a few different key­ tems and finding ways to use them. the Brave. the soundtrack to her boards. As far as the audio goes. I've worked with him for many 1986 film of the same name-a that's the thing that I'm working on years. He's an artist who does much major new performance piece and now. We just got back from Rio and of his own work in 3-D and so he's accompanying album has been I tried out some new things there. I very tuned in to what various eagerly awaited. just cut and paste as I go with these projection systems can do. I'm also Empty Places. which opens the things. If I think that something isn't very dependent on him for another 1989 NEXT WAVE Festival. is both a working then I take it out- but not eye. He has a look to make sure continuation of Anderson's signature during the show. because unfor­ things aren't too chaotic. mix of stories. songs. and projec­ tunately it's just too awkward to The thing that took me the long­ tions and a breakthrough in terms skip over something. est on all of this was shooting the of music and message. A number of slides because I'm not very good at songs from the piece are included It's aU scripted and you just have farming things out Perry helped me in her new album Strange Angel. to go with what you're doing? on a couple of things. but 98% of The following interview took place the stuff I shot myself. To even get in late July shortly after perfor­ Yeah. because once all of the one little sequence of dancing mances of Empty Places. then a twenty-five machines are whirring. wood together can take a couple of work-in-progress. at the Spoleto it's pretty hard to force them to days-for just a few seconds! Festival in South Carolina and in Sao stop. I'm building in a lot of things Paulo. BraziL Anderson discusses that give some flexibility because I think of most of your visuals as her growing confidence as a singer otherwise it's way too tyrannicaL animations, so I'm eager to see (reluctantly admitting to having You just have to keep up with the slides that are photos. Does this sung art songs) and as a political machines and that's no good. Basi­ change in your visual vocabulary commentator. In the past. she has cally they are pretty stupid. They affect your music? said that talking about music is like can't improvise anything at aiL They dancing about architecture. Thus. can just remember things. Yes. it does. It's a strange relation­ she makes no major pronouncements ship. this picture and word thing. on the state of her art. but always When you say flexibility, you Very. very strange. It's like memory. the storyteller. she shares anecdotes mean in terms of timing? When you remember some things -frequently shifting into other you have lots and lots of pictures voices-about the creation and stag­ Yes. the songs are performed some­ but you have no words. Your mem­ ing of Empty Places. Six years after times to a click track. but mostly ory is just a series of images. And her first appearance on BAM stages. the tempo is set at the beginning. with other kinds of memory. you she returns as a more mature artist So if there are several films going can hear words but you just can't and a wiser human being. on at the same time. they may have connect it to any kind of exact to be longer or shorter. The scores image. I'm trying to work in the that I write go across the page with crack in between. and make unusual columns for electronics. slides. connections between those things. How did things go at Spoleto? films. lights and MIDI patches. and now sort of. a screen motion. Are the photos staged or from I was just happy that the Genesis Because all of these things have to the real world? computer worked. That was the con­ interlock. the people that run this trolling mechanism for all the slides. equipment have to know what to do They're all different kind of things. There ere thirty slide projectors if something takes a little longer or There's Walt Disney bluebirds that it and several film projectors and an something is suddenly very fast­ took me about a week to draw. Just elaborat cuing device. Programming "Oh. no! I have 200 more feet of a little sequence of little cartoon -even ju nl ading all the slide film here. what am I going to do?" It bluebirds. That's in the homage to trays-took week. So I had my really is a kind of collaboration. David Lynch section in which he doubts a,oou whether this thing even though it's a solo. I'm the only whole stage becomes this very would rE1Plembe a I of the informa­ person on stage. but a lot of my cheerful but threatening little set of tion it was: given. But . did. It was hand motions are cues. roses. bluebirds. picket fence. grass surprising even shocki g. That was and trees. But it quickly changes 4 my mairy ensation-relief that that How large a crew is involved? into something else. The capability . \ Laurie Anderson, photo by Beatrlz Schiller of changing images quickly is what I It's a very lovely. love this computer for. As for the hypnotic loop but other images. I spent a lot of time I didn't have any reason walking around at night shooting to just screen it in the things. It's had a strange effect on performance. You have to me because it's made me feel much do a little bit more than just more comfortable in New York. go: "Well. here's an interesting loop:· This was one of the last Behind a camera? things I wrote before going to Spoleto.