Anna Von Hausswolff "Ceremony" (2013)

 

Stepping backwards in time, we arrive upon Swedish songwriter and Organist, Anna Von Hausswolff's sophomore record. As The Miraculous hinted, the engulfing esoteric gloom and might of her burdensome terror had yet to emerge. Ceremony feels rather undefined in its direction, closer to musical traditions stemming back to the 70s with songwriting, moods and templates that are yet to diverge from common and folksy sounds. Darkness is the flavor she brings but in this outing its just a shadow of the witchery yet to be discovered, more of a still and sombre grayness gently cast.

Interchanging her operatic voice with pipe organs and an array of string instruments, these calmed song temperaments gracefully cruise by. The second song Deathbed is the one track indicating her future direction. Its bludgeoning Doom Metal drone and grating guitar chords spell horror between her voice and colorful organs giving pause for light. The record then meanders into a string of bare and minimal musings, before traditional elements emerge towards the end, tethered to her subtle gloom.

I could get deeper into the particulars, her voice and instrumentation echoing strong feelings from many a musical style and artist heard before but that alone was the key take away. Rather than striding into new territory with something to shock and awe, at this stage Anna was still finding her feet, writing wonderful songs that have been enjoyable and even moving on its better tracks like Ocean. Ultimately though, its all a bit infantile in the shadow that her future self will cast.

Rating: 5/10

Anna Von Hausswolff "The Miraculous" (2015)

 

Searching for gems to talk about on my youtube music channel, reciting my words on the spellbinding Dead Magic was a reminder to continue my exploration of Anna's music. I recall giving The Miraculous a passing listen but now with intent I hear the formation of what was to follow. Two of its longer cuts, the thematic Discovery and sludgy Come Wander With Me, delve into the darkness with sprawling esoteric journeys to be fully embellished on her next outing. Cutting between its lengthy passing, a variety of compositions has the record peering into lengthy crevasse of darkly ideas briefly explored in there powerful temperaments.

It makes for a wonderful experience that doesn't quite feel as a whole but in no way empty. Anna brings her torment and shadowy expression through illustrious instrumentation ever poised by subtly and texture, always brooding its tones and melodic inflections in steadily brewing atmospheres. She is often forthright and powerful with her singing, rising up to swell with the music where it is right but also sitting out the instrumental sections that deserve limelight too. In a couple cuts she lurches back to the shadows, compromised by the darkness of the albums most ambiguous musical passings. Her words always with a distress.

There is much to be adored here, however its final three songs highlight the lack of flow that is overcome by the engulfing nature of these dense songs. Evocation takes another plunge into the monstrous lunges of slow and sludgy Doom Metal bordering on temporal with its snailing pace. The following title track pivots to winding organ piece of dense and heavy airy textures, an experimentation in droning gloom that sticks out as the biggest difference. Anna's voice briefly arises in angelic form as if to pull the music into its apex yet it drifts back into its duller phase without climax.

It all ends with Stranger, a subtle sense of a wild west theme permeates its accent, illuminated by the spangled acoustic guitar chiming in at its peak. This pivoting is what stunts a greater sense of what the record is. Many wonderful concepts are realized while its songs switch from one to the next. I have very much enjoyed the experience but I feel as if there were three or four distinct sounds being jostled, making it feel like a collection of songs over an album. This sort of esoteric and ethereal music brings that preference for a unified vision out of me when listening. Still wonderful though.

Rating: 7/10

Anna Von Hausswolff "All Thoughts Fly" (2020)

 

Her previous ambition, Dead Magic, was a riveting record upon discovery. Since then its been a frequent return, always delivering its beautiful sorrow and engulfing esoteric spookiness. I brought All Thoughts Fly in the blink of an eye, not knowing it was not a typical release. Devoid of her captivating voice, the record is an instrumental piece, recorded entirely on a pipe organ. The initial disappointment soured my first few listens as I yearned for the music to give way to other elements. Having now grown accustom to its dimension, I hear the foundational building blocks of her "normal" music being deeply explored in the various moody temperaments this record offers.

Three to four of these seven songs explore a cold, glum macabreness. Funeral sadness and crushing sorrow permeates the room in the rich bellowing fog of a dense, burdensome organ tone. Its dark, lonely and tearful in its most penetrating moments. Sacro Bosco acts a bridge between halves. Initially mysterious, Anna uses stereo panned low notes over ambiguous fuzzy noise to build the song into a magical realm. Its quite impressive how this was done with just the pipe organ, however one can imagine reverberations, loop pedals and other processing tools may have come into play to forge such a layered and dense sound the music wanders into often.

This magical, esoteric side is better explored in the opening number. Whirling sounds of sparkles flutter by prodding instruments, bursts of notation climbing from rumbling lows to spectral highs in a cyclical nature. Its ambiguous and entrancing, yet its later spells, including the lengthy title track, tend to lull into a drone as its swirling, looping nature becomes jaded in its own shadow. It may move through phases but the unrelenting spiral of notes ends up becoming a heavy wash of background radiation.

There is an impressive quality to this record with knowledge of how all the mysterious, atmospheric and ambiguous sounds that emanate, came from a lone instrument. It sparks my curiosity. How many layers and plugins where used for each song? The depressive church organ songs clearly used less yet in some of the musics build ups there is a lot going on to digest. All Thoughts Fly possess some spellbinding compositions yet in its duration frequently becomes dull and droning in its final stretch. One can clearly hear the foundations of her unique music, the scope of which is greatly elevated by her voice and accompanying instruments. There is of course no reason not to pursue an ambition like this, however it didn't feel like it could yield anything being the normative scope.

Rating: 6/10

My Top 10 Music Discoverys In 2019

Looking back at my thoughts and words from 2018, it seems I may repeat the same sentiment again. Maybe one of the years I'll actually develop a broader discovery of new music because as you'll see once again its dominated by Metal! I just can't seem to get away. In my defence life changes and my time devoted to music and this blog has been stretched so who knows what the new decade will hold! Anyways here is the years discoveries!

(10) Hunt The Dinosaur

They may be somewhat novelty and outrageous but that's the charm. I always love a bit of obnoxious chugging and Djent but these guys stand apart thank to their singers fiery guttural raps. The music is very textural and over the top yet in their first record, Dankosaurus, a couple of invigorating gems are to be found. If they work on their songwriting this group could really become something!

(9) Arkhtinn

Admittedly not the most impressive discovery but one that scratches an itch started by Darkspace over a decade ago. This breed of Black Metal is of epic proportion, an astral experience propelled into the abyss by its smothering wall of narrowing sound. Their newest release 最初の災害 seems to be the best of what I've heard so far.

(8) Shade Empire

 

An English band with lavish orchestration and brilliant song writing. Arcane Omega is practically a masterpiece of its own style and I'm surprised I'd not learned of them sooner. No doubt in the new years I will get through a few more of theirs however I am not so sure there sound is consistent but certainly hoping for more in this vein.

(7) Fairyland

Power Metal has never been my forte but this year Fairyland and Sabaton have begun to turn the tides. Of Wars In Osyhria is a record that fits so well into my taste, it has measures and fractions of tone and tune I've heard in many another project and together they make a magical adventure. The other two records don't get close unfortunately however they have been fun.

(6) Bæst

I adore Bloodbath and their era with Mikeal Akerfeldt. The Danish group Bæst have pretty much emulated that sound and style to the bone. Even oi they lack originality, its such a great execution and the songs they write are fantastic. It will be interesting to see if they take off in the Death Metal scene given the similarity but personally I am just glad this niche will continue onwards.

(5) Lil Peep

 

When I first heard of Emo Rap and Lil Peep I ignorantly turned my nose up at it. His music is sad, the fact that it sometimes takes someone passing to get your attention is sadder too but most of all his youthful passing is the saddest, almost haunting as the pains of his emotive music and storey of drug abuse and hopelessness seemed to have manifest. Besides the storey though his music is undoubtedly special and gloomily moody.

(4) Anna Van Hasswolf

I'm noticing that Scandinavian voices frequently seem to be my thing. I'm dead guilty of somehow not getting past this one record, Dead Magic, which I listen to often. Its beautifully ethereal, a fraction esoteric and moodily engrossing and spiritual. I will get to more of her records in the new years but lets linger on that album cover for a moment. Its utterly haunting. Having seen it countless times it still gives me a chill.

(3) Aurora

And here is another Scandinavian voice who's currently my addiction! Having only recently found Aurora I still have two records to get through. What a treat! Interestingly enough music was not her primary pursuit but given her talent she choose to pursue it for those who may need it and I did not know I needed to hear her voice until I did! A beautiful singer, can't wait for more.

 (2) Queen

It should be obvious that I of course already knew of Queen, rather well to in terms of their greatest hits. They make it onto this list as I've really come to know of them in a new light and have harvested an even bigger respect for these legends. It was kicked of by the Bohemian Rhapsody movie, a stunning tribute and I am determined now to get through every single record!

(1) Tool

This is the epitome of a turnaround. Without really knowing much about them, my youthful ignorance had cemented them in my mind as a smelly band I wanted nothing to do with. I missed my opportunity to see them live in 2006 because of this attitude but thanks to my friend Rendog I was convinced there was something about Tool and so I gave it a try. It was a slow process, it took a long time to find the spark but since discovering it I have come to adore them and seeing them live this year was a fantastic experience. The new record Fear Inoculum is a bit of a mixed bag though. Their return is a welcome one but I think they may need to get back in the groove before they reach the peaks of the past again.

Anna Von Hausswolff "Dead Magic" (2018)

This is my first record from Swedish singer Anna Von Hausswolff and It wont be my last! Her timeless vocals and meditative music an instant connection that's stoked the flames of emotion as her deeply resonate voice taps into the human life stream. She reminds me fondly of Lisa Gerrard who embodies worldly, cultural tones, however Anna has a voice that's strong, powerful and enigmatic yet caught in a blissful limbo of solace and sorrow. The music feels like the perfect setting for her haunting and grieving words to play out through spiritual, monotonous instrumentals that conjure earthly visions of nature alongside ambiguous echos of magical, evaded dangers. Its a unique cast of ideas heard in much of the music I enjoy. Here it comes together with a potent chemistry, a special touch that I simply adore.

The music has a fantastic droning quality, each song holds its moments together with a looping percussive momentum, letting shifts, turns and inclinations in intensity feel wholly natural and with true purpose. The deep pipe organs and embrace of droning synths smothered in reverb give each track its ambiguous belly as the drums come with tribal poundings to guide the flow. Rumbling, gritty, droning guitar distortions texture the mood on one track where another achieves this with acoustic chords and tambourine. String instruments weep there sorrow and synthesizers add to the Ethereal soundscapes along with many other sounds in the details.

The album starts in a warm place with a playful beat and two note melody guiding the musics into gleaming shifts of uplifting chords, chiming with her voice. The lengthy song collapses into an echo chamber of reflections as the pipe organ leads us to a dramatic and spiritual climax. It sets the stage for things to continuously darken as Anna exchanges her words between a gorgeously illusive and mysterious shimmering sound that drifts in and out of focus like a ghostly magic in the distance.

With Ugly And Vengeful we go on a dark journey, steadily descending into the depths on a sixteen minute epic that builds to an almighty, menacing atmosphere peaked by a unforgiving melody. The Marble eye is a beautiful pipe organ solo piece that gives one a sense of aftermath and loss with a creak of hope in its tone. The albums final track rolls out more of this feeling, bringing in her voice again with some wretched gritty noises of suffering buried deep under the organs brooding tone.

Dead Magic has been a recent addiction, a record I know I will treasure for times to come. A phenomenal spell is cast somewhere between her burdened voice and the brilliant instrumentals. With a meditative quality one embarks on a spiritual journey, each listen steers itself from knowing and embraces the abandon around her sorrow swept lyrics. It has a darkness far from evil or horror that's oddly comforting and unique given all the shades of shadows I enjoy. Wonderful record, would have been high up on My Top 10 Albums Of 2018 list. Now to get her other two albums!

Rating: 9/10