Laurie Anderson announces first studio album in a decade

Laurie Anderson has announced her first studio album in a decade, featuring songs from her Homeland stage project . Released this summer, the LP will feature contributions from Four Tet, Antony Hegarty and Lou Reed. Anderson has been touring Homeland for three years, from London to Moscow and Melbourne. The multimedia production includes video, spoken-word elements and song, and although the film component can't be squeezed on to an audio CD, even Anderson's male stage persona, Fenway Bergamot, appears on the record. In "audio drag", s/he performs music "at once personal and political, equally focused on love and American identity", according to the press release. At 62, and 30 years into her career, Anderson has a lot of, er, arty friends. Produced by husband Lou Reed and long-time collaborator Roma Baran, Homeland boasts Tuvan throat-singers, New York jazzers and an Icelandic bassist. There's a disappointing lack of gamelan or electric triangle, but John Zorn plays sax, while Kieran Hebden, better known as Four Tet, plays keyboards. Minus his Johnsons, Mercury prize-winner Antony Hegarty recorded additional vocals. According to the Nonesuch Records blog , Homeland touches on "US foreign policy, torture, economic collapse, the erosion of personal freedom, medical malpractice, religion and cynicism". Anderson has prestigious live dates scheduled for 2010, and a book of short stories is due next year. Homeland will be released on 15 June.