In honor of Yoko Ono’s birthday this weekend, Laurie Anderson led guests at Guild Hall in a face-reddening scream. The occasion was a talk between Anderson, who now looks remarkably like Christopher Walken with spiky hair and otherworldly pallor, and curator Christina Strassfield, who is putting together a show of Anderson’s work at Guild Hall set for this summer. Among the many stories that kept Anderson riffing for over an hour, was the story of Ono’s primal scream following the election of Donald Trump. The audience complied and screamed with relish.

This turns out to be Laurie Anderson’s year: new music releases include “Landfall,” a sound collaboration with the avantgarde Kronos Quartet, and a book, All the Things I Lost in the Flood: Essay on Pictures, Language, and Code, a compilation of text and visuals, the flood referring to Superstorm Sandy and what she lost, her entire archive. Trained as a violinist, Anderson thinks of herself principally as a musician and has stretched the term with inventions of her own sound instruments. The challenges of following her own artistic instincts have led her to a role as artist-in-residence at NASA, and to Guantanamo Prison.

At the Guild Hall talk, she got to skim the surface of her remarkable career, and pay homage to several artists who inspired her including her late husband Lou Reed, her piano-playing dog, and William Burroughs who, she said, taught her the performance strategy of addressing YOU! But she is also interested in cloning, a subject with which Burroughs was obsessed. One step ahead, and maybe a product of her many losses, Anderson embraces non-objects and objects alike. The images you see move and emote from afar, and like Prince at the recent Grammy Awards, may harken from the dead.

Regina Weinreich

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