Artwork & photography by Jon Wozencroft
Release date: 26th March 2016
Organ: Anna von Hausswolff. Recorded live at Lincoln Cathedral, 19th October 2013.
Performed at Frequency 13 Lincoln Digital Culture Festival as part of Touch presents…, (which also featured Chris Watson & Hildur Gudnadottir)
Recorded live by Mike Harding using 2 x dpa 4060s onto a Nagra Ares Pll digital recorder
This recording is unedited from the original raw file
Though she now lives in Stockholm, Anna von Hausswolff 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. Although Anna has achieved acclaim with her song-based albums ‘Ceremony’ and Singing from the Grave (both first released on Kning Disk in Sweden), she has always had an ear for the radical approach, and this is the first step in a long-term collaboration with Touch.
Comments and reviews:
Other Music (USA):
It’s been well over a year since Anna von Hausswolff’s epic Ceremony LP was first issued in Sweden, and with a North American release on our own Other Music Recording Co. last July and a European release on City Slang, as well as an ongoing world tour, it’s been a while since we’ve heard any new music from her. She is currently working on a proper follow-up to that breakthrough album, but between tours Anna’s restless muse has also seen her exploring everything from fine arts and architecture to improvisational collaborations, and here, on this limited 12″ EP from Touch, avant-classical sound composition.
Recorded in the UK last October, live at Lincoln Cathedral as part of a performance series presented by Touch at the Frequency 13 Festival, Källan (prototype) is a sketch of a longer orchestrated piece that Anna has written. This spare composition builds slowly over the course of the record, relying on the powerful pipes of the Cathedral’s massive organ, and in the thoughtful recording by Mike Harding — the natural ambiance of the room and the ambient audience sounds, from the harsh interruption of an errant cough to the collective breathing of a spellbound crowd, is reminiscent at times of Nils Frahm’s recent live recordings on his Spaces LP. If you are looking for more of Ceremony’s intensely beautiful gothic pop, you won’t find it here, but Anna’s organ playing is unmistakable, and for those with an ear open to more experimental soundscapes and classical composition, this is a truly beautiful LP. Limited to 500 copies worldwide (and already sold out through Touch), vinyl-only, with artwork and photography by Jon Wozencroft, and a pretty cool locked-groove at the end of side one. [JM]
paul kenton:
“Anna Von Hausswolf’s “Källan”, recorded in Lincoln Cathedral, is hypnotic – the organ sounds like a voice from another world.”
