Every time I start to to compile that best of 2015 list, another record comes along that vies for contention. Anna von Hausswolff, 'The Miraculous' is a big powerful, widescreen album via City Slang. Much like Sunn O ))) with a female vocalist, the record is steeped in drama, It’s like a psychedelic opera from this very accomplished Swedish singer-songwriter who has now released three full length albums.
Combining the organ with Anna's incredible vocal range makes for a record enveloped by dark shadows and angelic soundscapes all at the same time. In 2013, following the release of her second album, ‘Ceremony’, Anna was invited to perform at Lincoln Cathedral, such a setting for the new record would be very appropriate.
Much of enormous drone like sound on 'The Miraculous' comes from Ann’s use of the Acusticum Pipe Organ in Piteå, Northern Sweden, whose colossal sound, with nine thousand pipes, is one of the biggest of its kind in the country. Inaugurated in 2012, and designed by Gerard Woehl, this is what supplies the album's dramatic feel. The title track is a prime example of an organ drone like ambience.
In total, five days were spent recording the majority of the album’ live with her band, Ulrik Ording (drums), Joel Fabiansson (guitar), Karl Vento (guitar) and Filip Leyman (synthesiser), also the record’s producer). Afterwards, they decamped to Gothenburg for a further month’s work, before mixing it Filip’s studio.
This is no summer pop record, it’s an early winter release that's just perfect as the dark night nights draw in and the fire rages in the hearth.
Anna has an uncompromising approach to her art, of the record’s potential commercial impact, she remains unperturbed. “I can´t afford to care about the market´s approval. I would lose too much artistic energy, and that would only ruin me. As Lars Norén once said of his work as a writer, ‘The market is the most lethal of all poisons’.”
Anna will play London's Oslo on 8th December , not to be missed I suggest.
Pete
10/11
