Canines have long been considered man’s best friend, but somehow this relationship continues to gain intimacy. Dog owners now dress their pooches with designer clothes, tote these travel-size companions in lavish carriers, escort the four-legged friends to sporting events, and now have the opportunity to attend dog-friendly concerts. That’s right, legendary musicians, as well as husband and wife, Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed recently composed a “high-frequency concert” to entertain a crowd of Australian dogs and their owners. Reed figured even dogs need to take a walk on the wild side.
Neither is foreign to this type of musical experimentation. Anderson has been creating innovative instruments for 30+ years, and Reed altered the musical landscape with his 1975 noise opus Metal Machine Music. According to Anderson, their rat terrier’s fascination with Daft Punk-esque music served as inspiration for “Music for Dogs”. And while Anderson and Reed have not yet commented on how they created sounds they themselves cannot hear, our guess would be their dog Lollabelle had a little creative control.
Currently in Sydney as curator of the Vivid Live Festival at the Sydney Opera House, Anderson took to the stage — minus Reed, but with what appears to be a violist, an acoustic bassist, and a saxophonist — to perform a 20-minute set, entitled “Music For Dogs”. Most of the high-frequency performance doesn’t quite agree with the human ear, and while the dogs do wag their tails and let loose whimsical howls, the success of the performance seems impossible to judge properly. But, as Anderson says, “We don’t actually know music what type of music dogs like.” Thanks to our friends at TwentyFourBit, you and your pooches can watch about 6 minutes of the concert below and judge for yourself. Afterwords, a nice human-treat may be in order.
In other Anderson news, her newest release, Homeland, is now set for release June 22nd, and can currently be streamed in its entirety at NPR.
