LAURIE ANDERSON – BIG SCIENCE LP – Nr MINT/EXC+ 1982 ELECTRONICA NEW WAVE

Laurie Anderson – Big Science
(Warner Bros Records  1982  WB57002)
Matrix No’s: A4/B4

Sleeve in Very Good+ condition
– wear to edges/corners & import cut in top left corner – small import sticker on back cover
Inner Sleeve has some creasing but no splits

Vinyl in Nr MINT/Excellent+ condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality apart from some light pops/crackles)

Laura Phillips “Laurie” Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, focusing particularly on language, technology, and visual imagery. Her song “O Superman” reached number two on the UK singles chart in 1981.

Big Science is the 1982 debut album by avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson and the first of a 7-album deal she signed with Warner Bros. Records. It is best known for the 8-minute epic “O Superman”, which reached #2 in the UK. The album is minimalist and monochrome in sound, and like a great deal of Anderson’s work is based largely on spoken word. It is a selection of highlights from her eight-hour production, United States Live, which was itself released as a 4-LP box set and book in 1984. United States Live was originally a performance piece, in which music was only one element. After Big Science music played a larger role in Anderson’s work.

Track listing

All tracks by Laurie Anderson.

1. “From the Air” – 4:29
2. “Big Science” – 6:14
3. “Sweaters” – 2:18
4. “Walking & Falling” – 2:10
5. “Born, Never Asked” – 4:56
6. “O Superman (For Massenet)” – 8:21
7. “Example #22” – 2:59
8. “Let X=X/It Tango” – 6:51 (“Let X=X” – 3:51; “It Tango” – 3:01)

Personnel

• Laurie Anderson – vocals, vocoder, farfisa organ, percussion, Oberheim OB-Xa, sticks, violins, electronics, keyboards, handclaps, whistling, marimba
• Roma Baran – farfisa bass, glass harmonica, sticks, handclaps, casiotone, accordion, whistling
• Perry Hoberman – bottles and sticks, handclaps, flute, sax, piccolo, backing vocals
• Bill Obrecht – alto sax
• Peter Gordon – clarinet, tenor sax
• David Van Tieghem – drums, rototoms, timpani, marimba, percussion

Additional personnel

• Rufus Harley – bagpipes on 3
• Chuck Fisher – alto sax on 7, tenor sax on 7
• Richard Cohen – b-flat clarinet on 7, e-flat clarinet on 7, bass clarinet on 7, bassoon on 7, bari sax on 7
• Leanne Ungar – backing vocals on 7
• George Lewis – trombones