The macabre imagery and dream world of Alu

Series: Echo Location: Soundings for New Music
From: John Diliberto
Length: 00:03:30

Singer-songwriter delves into dark and quirky places Read the full description.
16-Alu.mp2
None.
To hear the full audio, sign up for a free PRX account or log in.

Also in the Echo Location: Soundings for New Music series

Violinist Anna Schaad's Dream Within a Dream (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Violinist Anna Schaad’s music is steeped in fantasy and inspired by her Navy pilot husband. Though heavily Celtic influenced, she takes an electronica turn on her album ...
Caption: Ian Boddy and Mark Shreeve of Arc, Credit: Kimberly Haas

English electronic duo plugs in with vintage synthesizers and heads into space (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

English electronic musicians Mark Shreeve and Ian Boddy perform in a pair of cockpits of keyboards and gear. They specialize in a sound that has roots in German space music ...
Caption: Kronos Quartet, Credit: Michael Wilson

Kronos Quartet: Four Decades of Breaking the String Quartet Rules (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

In the world of string quartets there is before and after Kronos, the ensemble that revolutionized the form, playing new music from Steve Reich to Sigur Ros. We talk with ...

Ludovico Einaudi's Nightbook (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Pianist Ludovico Einaudi is a different kind of classical composer. He's a student of the avant-garde and the rich classical tradition of his native Italy, but he’s also a ...

The Orchestrion: Pat Metheny's One-Man Band (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Acclaimed jazz guitarist Pat Metheny plugs to the Orchestrion, a massive instrument based on the old player piano orchestrations of yore.

The Godfather of Ambient Chamber Music (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Harold Budd started out as a jazz drummer in the 1950s, then became a student of Schoenberg style serialism. Against that backdrop, he revolted the only way he could: making ...

Three Musicians in Communion With Each Other (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Native flute master R. Carlos Nakai, luthier and guitarist William Eaton, and world percussionist Will Clipman return with an album of intuitive improvisations, ranging from ...

A Senegalese griot meets a German jazz trumpeter (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

An African griot meets a German jazz trumpeter when Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze talk about their unlikely and serenely beautiful collaboration.
Caption: Daevid Allen of Gong

Wandering the Psychedelic Galaxy with Gong (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

It's been 40 years since Daevid Allen convened his space gypsy rock band Gong which influenced everyone from Ozric Tentacles to Steve Roach. Allen and guitarist Steve ...

The East-West fusion of Urban Nature (00:03:30)
From: John Diliberto

Urban Nature is the duo of guitarist Todd Boston and Indian percussionist Ramesh Kannan. They’re updating the East-West fusion of John McLaughlin's Shakti, adding looping ...

Piece Description

Alu is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter who creates ambient soundscapes for her songs of lost innocence, cultural ennui and interior dialogues. With a voice that sounds like Kate Bush in a cabaret, Alu sings of casket salesmen, circus cosmos and buzzin' brains that populate her captivating fantasy stories.

Broadcast History

aired on WXPN Philadelphia 07/16/2008

Transcript

[sonar sound] + This is an Echo Location: Soundings for New Music.

Music

:03
ZIGGY STARDUST CAME FROM MARS, SUN RA CAME FROM SATURN. A SINGER NAMED ALU ISN'T FROM ANOTHER PLANET, BUT SOMETIMES SHE WANTS TO BE.

:20
A: Ah, no, not really happy with earth, I sometimes not happy with the humans here, um, I think I?ve always felt like a bit of an outcast and um, you know, just, I think we all kind of want to go to that place where our family is, or the people who understand and support us are, and that?s kind of Mars to me.

Music MARTIAN RENDEZVOUS

:30
THAT'S "MARTIAN RENDEZVOUS,? ONE OF THE QUIRKY, ATMOSPHERIC AND THEATRICAL SONGS FROM HER SOPHOMORE ALBUM, "LOBOTOMY SESSIONS." THAT SOUNDS LIKE AN IRONIC PUNK TITLE OR THE FOLLOW-UP TO SPINAL TAP'S "INTRAVENOUS DE MILO." BUT ALTHOUGH SHE DOES HAVE A SONG THE NEW CLIVE BARKER FILM, "MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN," ALU ISN'T A MOROS...
Read the full transcript

Timing and Cues

Incue: [sonar sound] + This is an Echo Location: Soundings for New Music.

Outcue: I?m John Diliberto and this has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music

Musical Works

Title Artist Album Label Year Length Find on Amazon
MARTIAN RENDEZVOUS Alu Lobotomy Sessions. 2008 00:10 find now
Buzzin in my Brain Alu Lobotomy Sessions. 2008 00:08 find now
CIRCUS COSMOS Alu Lobotomy Sessions. 2008 00:10 find now