Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet’s Landfall was inspired by Anderson’s experience of Hurricane Sandy. It juxtaposes electronics and strings with Anderson’s descriptions of loss, from water-logged pianos to disappearing animal species to Dutch karaoke bars. The original multimedia stage production also included projected text that was triggered by the live instruments through Erst, a software developed by Anderson and programmed by Liubo Borissov. Examples of this text are included in the official music videos for the album.

SELECT CREDITS

Laurie Anderson, violin, vocals, keyboards, samples, percussion, filters

Kronos Quartet
David Harrington, violin
John Sherba, violin
Hank Dutt, viola
Sunny Yang, cello

Composed by Laurie Anderson for Kronos Quartet
Music and text by Laurie Anderson
Transcriptions by Jacob Garchik
Arrangements by Laurie Anderson, Kronos Quartet, and Jacob Garchik

Produced by Scott Fraser, Laurie Anderson, and Kronos Quartet
Executive Producer: David Bither

Landfall premiered at the University of Maryland’s Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in February 2013 and was commissioned by Adelaide Festival, Australia; Barbican, London; Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, University of Maryland, College Park; Peak Performances @ Montclair State (NJ); Perth International Arts Festival, Australia; Stanford Live, Stanford University; and Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. Additional project support was provided to the Kronos Performing Arts Association by the National Endowment for the Arts.