Life on a String (album)

Life on a String is an album by performance artist Laurie Anderson, released in 2001 on Nonesuch Records.

One of Anderson's predominantly musical (as opposed to spoken-word) albums, Life on a String was recorded at the Lobby Studios in New York City, and produced by Anderson and Hal Willner. Guest musicians on the album include Mocean Worker, Mitchell Froom, Vinicius Cantuária and Lou Reed.

The first three songs, "One White Whale," "The Island Where I Come From," and "Pieces and Parts," were taken from her show Songs and Stories from Moby Dick. The song "Slip Away" is about the death of her father.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Laurie Anderson, except where indicated

1. "One White Whale" – 2:03
2. "The Island Where I Come From" – 4:08
3. "Pieces and Parts" – 3:36
4. "Here With You" – 2:22
5. "Slip Away" – 5:50
6. "My Compensation" – 2:28 (Anderson, Skúli Sverrisson)
7. "Dark Angel" – 3:22
8. "Broken" – 3:19
9. "Washington Street" – 4:41
10. "Statue of Liberty" – 4:24
11. "One Beautiful Evening" – 5:05
12. "Life on a String" – 2:57

Personnel

• Laurie Anderson - vocals, violin, keyboards, percussion, gong
• Van Dyke Parks - keyboards, conductor, string arrangements
• Lou Reed - guitar
• David Torn - loops
• Joey Baron - drums, percussion
• Martin Brumbach - mixing, percussion arrangement
• Mino Cinelu - percussion
• Greg Cohen - acoustic bass
• Bill Frisell - guitar
• Danny Frankel - percussion, handclapping
• Erik Friedlander - cello
• Mitchell Froom - mellotron, wurlitzer, claviola
• Peter Scherer - keyboards
• Chris Speed - saxophone
• Skúli Sverrisson - bass, guitar, keyboards, sounds, percussion programming
• Hal Willner - turntables, sampling
• Cuong Vu - trumpet
• Vinicius Cantuária - percussion
• Eyvind Kang - violin
• Ben Rubin - bell

Executive Producer: David Bither