Amelia, the latest album by avant garde pioneer Laurie Anderson, tells the story of the final days of the pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart, “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 has said. It started life as a live performance in 2000; now, this recording of an updated piece recently premiered in Europe features the likes of Anohni, Marc Ribot and the Filharmonie Brno. In a review of the album, Uncut magazine wrote: “Anderson’s admiration and affection for this feminist icon is such that you come away from Amelia with a greater respect for those who keep on taking risks” – and it’s not hard to see the garlanded personnel on Amelia as a similar sign of admiration and affection for Anderson, a true one of a kind.
