Laurie Anderson has teamed up with Tibetan singer and multi-instrumentalist Tenzin Choegyal and activist and composer Jesse Paris Smith for a new collaborative album titled Songs from the Bardo.
Above, you can hear lead track ‘Lotus Born, No Need To Fear’, one of 14 songs to feature on the album. The long-form composition that makes up the album as a whole was first presented as a mostly improvisatory performance at New York’s Rubin Museum of Art, and was intended as an interpretation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The album sees the trio joined by cellist Rubin Kodheli and percussionist Shahzad Ismaily to add backing accompaniment.
"I have tried to channel the wisdom and traditions of my ancestors through my music in a very contemporary way while holding the depth of my lineage," Tenzin Choegyal says of his work in the album’s liner notes.
Smithsonian Folkways will release Songs from the Bardo on September 27.
