Laurie Anderson is best known as an early pioneer of electronic music, but her wildly diverse catalog of ambitious multimedia projects encompasses not only music but film, visual projections, dance, and spoken and written word. Her early experimentations in composition and performance led to an accidental mainstream moment with her 1982 album Big Science and the hit single “O Superman,” which she followed up with continual exploration and thoughtful provocations. She holds a number of honorary doctorates, and in 2002, was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA. Her latest album Amelia, released in 2024, comprises twenty-two tracks about the aviator Amelia Earhart’s tragic last flight. “Republic of Love” was first conceived after an invitation to do a two hour talk on the relationship of government and love from a festival in Vienna. It’s a collection of songs and stories about the current state of America, with some history thrown in, reexamining works such as “Big Science” and “Language Is a Virus.” Backed by Sexmob, an instrumental jazz quartet that emerged from the Knitting Factory scene in the mid-’90s and known for raw improvisation and inventive arrangements, Anderson’s performance also features the words and thoughts of many Americans such as Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, John Cage, Gertrude Stein, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. Anderson herself calls the work “a celebration of freedom.”