Anna Von Hausswolff presented by Goodlive Artists Austria

Anna von Hausswolff is a Swedish musician and composer whose work carves out space for the celestial and the transcendent to enter into the modern world. Following her breakthrough album, Ceremony (2012), von Hausswolff’s subsequent releases quickly cemented her as an artist of unpredictable and vast creativity, always moving forward, always melding tradition with experimentation in unimaginable ways.

Taking the pipe organ, with its ancient whirring character, as her instrument of choice, von Hausswolff’s sound has long played with the ethereal qualities of breath: of taking in, holding, and releasing it. This sometimes takes the form of colossal, doom-laden rock songs, and at other times, as intimate organ pieces. On ICONOCLASTS, her sound evolves again, bringing a poppier and more vibrant element to her moving songs.

ICONOCLASTS is von Hausswolff’s sixth LP, and her debut release on Swedish record label YEAR0001. Produced by von Hausswolff and longtime collaborator Filip Leyman, it is an opus of stirring movement, anthemic ritualism, and maximalist composition, marking a new chapter in von Hausswolff’s music and featuring appearances from Ethel Cain, Abul Mogard, Iggy Pop, and Maria von Hausswolff.

ICONOCLASTS begins with brass heralding out, beckoning listeners into the boundless story that is about to unfold. Before long, von Hausswolff’s first beaming vocals ring out: „I came to take you back to where you came from, but that’s not what you want.“ From this, the groundwork is set for an album of blistering, mounting tension and hard-fought, euphoric release. Addressing themes of love, freedom, and autonomy, its title, ICONOCLASTS, hints at a shattering and reimagining of the sacred personal symbols that bubble under the surface of contemporary life: commitment, time, dependency, and belief.

In this pursuit, von Hausswolff chooses Atlas—he who carries the world’s weight upon his shoulders—as a sympathetic character. How does one find the strength to prevent collapsing in these trying moments? For von Hausswolff, it is the pursuit of the divine. She finds inspiration in the fears and contradictions that arise when one is faced with monolithic power structures and concepts. The songs on ICONOCLASTS transform these uncertain feelings into kindling for the creation of sonic bonfires of immense scale. Von Hausswolff sows her songs in the borderlands between the gargantuan and the intimate, and it is the ashes of these demolished symbols that fertilise its grounds for new possibilities.

Stripping back the metallic qualities that have characterised her sound, on ICONOCLASTS, von Hausswolff breaks open the gates into a warm sound world, rich in organic, gleaming potentials. Between echoing drums, murmuring organs, and reverberating guitars, von Hausswolff herself becomes one figure in this fluttering aural space.

On ICONOCLASTS, her ensemble is expanded to include the virtuoso saxophonist Otis Sandsjö, who brings his swirling saxophone trills to the core of the record. With a magnetic power, her voice pulls the listener closer, offering glimpses into an emotive world of secrets and madness, of heartbreak and desire, of beauty and life.

Although pushing towards new sonic territory, ICONOCLASTS features all of the signature qualities of a von Hausswolff release: mammoth intensity, crystalline iridescence, and lustrous dynamism.