Loves a theme, does our Laurie Anderson. This time the exploration is of the life, work, and tale of pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart, who vanished without a trace mid-flight. With collaborators aplenty, including Anohni, Marc Ribot, Rob Moose, and more this is sure to fascinate. - Flying Out
Amelia is the 2024 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient's first album since 2018's Grammy-winning Landfall. The record comprises twenty-two tracks about renowned female aviator Amelia Earhart's tragic last flight.
Anderson, who Pitchfork says, "sees the future, but she starts by paying attention," wrote the music and lyrics for this subjective narrative piece. On the album, she is joined by the Czech orchestra Filharmonie Brno, conducted by Dennis Russell Davies, and Anohni, Gabriel Cabezas, Rob Moose, Ryan Kelly, Martha Mooke, Marc Ribot, Tony Scherr, Nadia Sirota, and Kenny Wolleson.
Earhart was a passionate pioneer of early aviation, achieving fame as the first woman to cross the Atlantic, in 1932. Five years later, she embarked on a flight around the world. Before she could complete the voyage, her plane disappeared without a trace; it has never been found. "The words used in Amelia are inspired by her pilot diaries, the telegrams she wrote to her husband, and my idea of what a woman flying around the world might think about," Anderson says. First premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2000, the updated piece was recently performed across Europe.
Tracklist:
1. To Circle the World
2. I See Something Shining
3. Take-off
4. Aloft (feat. Anohni)
5. San Juan
6. Brazil
7. Crossing the Equator (feat. Anohni)
8. The Badlands
9. Waves of Sand
10. The Letter
11. India And On Down to Australia (feat. Anohni)
12. This Modern World
13. Flying at Night
14. The Word for Woman Here
15. Road to Mandalay
16. Broken Chronometers
17. Nothing But Silt
18. The Wrong Way (feat. Anohni)
19. Fly Into the Sun
20. Howland Island
21. Radio (feat. Anohni)
22. Lucky Dime
