Anna Von Hausswolff - Ceremony
Label.........................: Kning Disk
Genre.........................: Indie
StoreDate.....................: Jul-18-2012
Source........................: CDDA
Grabber.......................: Exact Audio Copy (Secure Mode)
Encoding Scheme...............: Lame 3.98.4 V0 VBR Joint-Stereo
Size..........................: 99.35 MB
Total Playing Time............: 61:00
Release Notes:
It begins with the sound of a church organ, an arpeggio played on the
lower notes, a melody teased out in the higher register, before a snare
drum beats out an ominous, stuttering tattoo. Three minutes in, guitars
begin to rumble like clouds gathering on the horizon, the melody slowly
swelling, threatening to tear the sky apart. This is Anna Von
HausswolffÆs æEpitaph Of TheodorÆ, and as dramatic, instrumental
openings to albums go, itÆs close to overwhelming. But itÆs followed by
something even more intense: æDeathbedÆ, which growls and resonates
sinisterly before shards of metallic thunder shatter the drones and a
funereal beat forces the song to lurch forward. Only after some four and
a half minutes of this ferocious clamour do we hear a human voice, and
itÆs unleashed with a fierce power, rising and swooping, a vast bird
pursuing its prey until the song reaches its final, unexpectedly
triumphant climax.
You want to talk about compromises? No. Nor does Anna Von Hausswolff.
These two songs alone represent a quarter of CeremonyÆs sixty minutes,
but there are eleven more on an album that confounds and dumbfounds from
its start to its end. To those who used Anna Von HausswolffÆs debut
album, Singing From The Grave, to compare her lazily to Kate Bush, it
will come as a brutal shock. The fragile atmospheres of that impressive
debut, one that earned her huge acclaim in her native Sweden, have been
blasted away, and whatÆs emerged from the wasteland left behind is a
dizzying masterpiece that, she proudly states, calls upon, amongst
others, Elizabeth Fraser, Jefferson Airplane, PJ Harvey, Earth, Barn
Owl, Nick Cave and Diamanda Galßs.
Though she now lives in Copenhagen, she grew up in the once vibrant,
bohemian neighbourhood of Haga in Gothenburg, Sweden, to a family who
counted amongst their ancestors Bernhard Reynold von Hausswolff, an 18th
Century governor of Falun, Sweden, who helped bring an end to the
burning of witches. Her father, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, is a
composer and visual artist whoÆs also co-monarch of the kingdoms of
Elgaland-Vagaland, so itÆs perhaps not surprising that sheÆs chosen to
pursue a radical direction with her music.
ôI didn┤t just want Ceremony to be a collection of songs,ö she says. ôI
wanted it to be like a film, with every single part connected to the
other, with shifting moods and settings, but a thread holding all the
tracks together. I listen to a lot of film scores, and in many the music
is able to move freely without the typical structures that we find in
commercial music.ö
Arguably CeremonyÆs most significant ingredient is the church organ of
GothenburgÆs vast Annedalkyrkan, whose pipes are featured on the albumÆs
striking cover. Employed on nine of the albumÆs thirteen tracks, it also
provided von Hausswolff with the excuse to record for five days in the
century old building, its cavernous space adding to the recordÆs
formidable magnitude. (Work was completed at weekends over several
months in producer Filip LeymanÆs studios.) She found in the organÆs
sound a link between her own writing and a developing obsession with
ædrone metalÆ, allowing her to add layers of thick textures to the
songs. But û thanks to its inevitable associations with existence and
mortality û the organ also suited the themes that lay at the heart of
the record, which she defines as ônature and death, or the division of
humanity and nature. From the moment we exit the womb, we start our
paths towards materialism and destructive behaviour, and these days I
feel that the gap between nature and human is growing bigger. I wanted
to grasp my inner nature and be unified with nature again. Ceremony is a
celebration of life and everything that it contains, especially death,
because in death we will be truly one with nature again.ö
ThatÆs not to say that Ceremony is a bleak record, something highlighted
by the extraordinary æHarmonicaÆ, which sounds like Dead Can Dance
channelling a Vashti Bunyan song with arrangements by Ennio Morricone.
ôItÆs a song I wrote just after my grandfather passed away,ö she
recalls. ôItÆs about how culture and traditions can travel from
generation down to generation, and in this case from him to me by music.
Just before he died, he gave me a harmonica and he told me to practise
hard and only write about things that are relevant to me. His deathbed
inspired me to make Ceremony.ö
HeÆd surely be proud of the bold, single-minded consequences of his
legacy. Whether it be the placid but grandiose æOceanÆ, the hymnal
æMountains CraveÆ, the grim, experimentalist æNo BodyÆ or the oddly
exhilarating æFuneral For My Future ChildrenÆ, Ceremony is a genuinely
thrilling, timeless, inventive and even sometimes û in the purest sense
of the word û gothic accomplishment.
ôThis record isn┤t really about Anna von Hausswolff as a vocalist or as
a personö she concludes. ôIt┤s about the music and all that it contains.
Singing from the Grave was a raw and emotional record that happened
fast. I think of it as an impulse. Ceremony is more of a vision:
something unfinished and unresolved, a glimpse of the future.ö
Tracklisting
01. Epitaph Of Theodor 5:25
02. Deathbed 8:38
03. Mountains Crave 3:35
04. Goodbye 6:16
05. Red Sun 3:17
06. Epitaph Of Daniel 3:11
07. No Body 2:33
08. Liturgy Of Light 5:01
09. Harmonica 4:22
10. Ocean 5:44
11. Sova 3:24
12. Funeral For My Future Children 4:42
13. Sun Rise 4:52
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