Music for Dogs Brighton Open Air Theatre, Dyke Road, Hove, Tuesday, May 10, 7.30pm, free (limited capacity), 01273 709709

A CONCERT tailored specifically for the canine ear, based on the musing "wouldn't it be great if you were playing a concert and you looked out and everyone is a dog?".

First performed at the Sydney Opera House and then again in New York's Times Square on a freezing winter morning, Laurie Anderson's concept now makes its UK premiere.

"It was a really icy evening and I thought it was going to be completely a mess," says Anderson. "But so many different kinds of dogs came."

A 20-minute performance which features music performed but only audible to dogs, as well as featuring other sounds for their human owners.

Heart of a Dog Duke of York's Picturehouse, London Road, Tuesday, May 10, 9pm, £10.50, 01273 709709

OSCAR-nominated Heart of a Dog sees Anderson reflect on love, language and death with her pet terrier Lolabelle as a conceptualisation of these ideas.

Rich, poetic and deeply personal, this essay-style film is constructed as a collage of compositions and film.

Featuring original music, animations as well as home movies of Anderson, her late husband Lou Reed and the piano-playing, finger-painting Lolabelle, the heartfelt film is showing at the festival ahead of its UK release.

The death of the her dog leads Anderson to intimately explore concepts of mortality with both a whimsical and sinister eye.

Song Conversation Brighton Dome, Church Street, Tuesday, May 17, 7.30pm, from £10, call 01273 709709

GUEST director Laurie Anderson will be joined by musicians pianist Nik Bartsch and guitarist Eivind Aarset as they ask the question "what is a song"?

In an exclusive performance for the Brighton Festival, this second ever undertaking of Song Conversation will see the masters freely improvise and talk through the intricacies of song writing both verbally and musically.

As they dissect structure, melody, inspiration and improvisation the audience will be taken on a journey exploring untapped sonic spaces.

Zurich-based Bartsch is a pianist, composer and producer who works solo as a member of Mobile and Ronin, while Aarset is a Norwegian guitarist specialising in applying avant garde guitar techniques to jazz and art rock.

Slideshow Brighton Dome, Church Street, Wednesday, May 18, 7.30pm, from £10, call 01273 709709

IN this world premiere Laurie Anderson will intimately explore the festival's central theme of home and place.

Anderson will stand alone on the stage delivering a monologue about the concept of place and places she has visited.

"It will be a monologue without music which is terrifying to me," says Anderson. "I was just thinking 'what could I do that would really scare me?', the answer was not use music.

"I really wanted to challenge myself just talking about place and places which have made a big impression on me or what it is like to be in certain places and how that influences who you are."

Lou Reed: Drones The Spire, St Mark's Chapel, Eastern Road, Brighton, Friday, May 13, to Tuesday, May 17, all day, free, call 01273 709709

ANDERSON'S late husband was pioneering guitarist Lou Reed, and this installation is a tribute to him with the power of drones.

Reed's Metal Machine Music was slammed by some critics but is credited as being the foundation of industrial and noise rock genres.

This installation features guitars and amps in feedback with 24 strings set in droning motion in an modulating and shifting soundscape.

Anderson says it is something to experience as people come and just sit, play their instruments, or dance