With a career spanning nearly four decades, Kim Gordon is one of the most prolific and visionary artists today. A co-founder of the legendary
Sonic Youth, Gordon has performed all over the world, collaborating with many of music’s most exciting figures including
Tony Conrad,
Ikue Mori, Julie Cafritz and
Stephen Malkmus. Most recently, Gordon has been hitting the road with
Body/Head, her spellbinding partnership with artist and musician
Bill Nace. Despite the exhaustive nature of her résumé, the most reliable aspect of Gordon’s music may be its resistance to formula. Songs discover themselves as they unspool, each one performing a test of the medium’s possibilities and limits. Her command is astonishing, but Gordon’s artistic curiosity remains the guiding force behind her music.
Gordon continues this pursuit on No Home Record, her first-ever solo release, produced by Justin Raisen (
Angel Olsen,
John Cale,
Charli XCX, etc.). Borrowing its name from a Chantal Akerman film, No Home Record is, in many ways, a return as much as it is a departure. When Gordon first began playing music in the early 1980s, she used a guitar, a drum machine, and some lyrics sniped from magazine advertisement copy. No Home Record contains echoes of that setup, in both form and concept while highlighting Gordon’s capacity to meld cultural critique, divulgence and humor. Front to back, No Home Record is an expert operation in the uncanny. You don’t simply listen to Gordon’s music; you experience it.