Laurie Anderson Mister Heartbreak CD

A textured and kaleidoscopic bag of surprises by this supremely innovative musician and performance artist, Mister Heartbreak is a distinctively appealing release. Employing her Synclavier and the help of guest musicians (who include, among others, Peter Gabriel, William Burroughs, Adrian Belew, Phoebe Snow and Nile Rogers), Anderson's songs project thrilling, exotic environments through which sonic effects and fragments of poetic narrative float like ghosts.

At once uber-technological and organic (one envisions a cyborg wandering through a rainforest), Anderson's work reinvents biblical mythology (the slippery retelling of Adam and Eve in "Langue d'Amour"), gumshoe noir ("Sharkey's Night") and strive toward, in her synthesis of tribal percussion, bird calls and natural sounds, a reinterpretation of indigenous music. At times these tracks seem less like songs than "texts" meant to be read by the ear: evocative, varied and ambiguous. But they are beautiful music as well, and as such draw the listener into this richly imagined, artfully constructed album.

Recorded at The Lobby, RCA, A&R, and 39th Street Music, New York, New York.

Personnel: Laurie Anderson (vocals, violin, synthesizer, percussion); Nile Rodgers (guitar); Bill Blaber (soprano saxophone); Bill Laswell (bass); Anton Fier (drums, percussion); David Van Tieghem (drums, electronic & acoustic percussion); Daniel Ponce (percussion); Sang Won Park (kayagum); Atsuko Yuma, Connie Harvey, Janet Wright (background vocals).

Producers: Bill Laswell, Roma Baran, Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson.