ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF: shares 3rd track 'An Oath', taken from gothic new album 'The Miraculous' (Nov 13, City Slang)

Some of the 9000 pipes The Miraculous was recorded upon take a break as Von Hausswolff's mesmerizing, other-worldly vocals come to the fore.

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF

- SHARES NEW TRACK 'AN OATH'
- ALBUM 'THE MIRACULOUS' OUT ON NOV 13
- LONDON SHOW AT OSLO ON DEC 8TH

“An undeniable power… Part siren, part lightning rod for the disenfranchised, she sings with unfettered abandon.” - 4/5 Mojo
"A titanic listen – a huge, brooding record that fuses ethereal fantasy with the portentous drama of rumbling organ drone" - The Quietus
“She never swamps the organ’s natural respitory qualities… and her powerful voice stands front and centre - rare for compositions this monolithic.” - 8/10, Uncut
"Stunning, immensely immense, harrowing at times and yes, quite awe-inspiring" - Dangerous Minds
“A very impressive piece of work” – Stereogum
“A thing of monstrous beauty and bombast” – NPR
“As inspiring as it is overwhelming, careening and evolving with an intense array of depth of complexity” – The 405
With two weeks until the release of her new album ‘The Miraculous’ on November 13th via City Slang, we celebrate All Hallows' Eve with another intoxicating new track from Anna von Hausswolff.

One of the lighter moments amongst the dense swathes of a 9000-pipe organ & murky guitars that characterize The Miraculous, ‘An Oath’ provides some respite and a great sense of optimism. On this track, Von Hausswolff's startlingly powerful vocal takes to the fore, set against a backdrop of galloping drums and swelling atmospherics. It’s a song whose timeless ambiance seems to have been passed down from generation to generation, its character twisted and contorted over the centuries.

Listen to ‘An Oath’: https://soundcloud.com/nnavonausswolff/an-oath/

On The Miraculous, ‘An Oath’ precedes the drone-led power & majesty of ‘Evocation’ which was recently shared along with a suitably unsettling video, directed by Anna’s sister Maria Von Hausswolff. Watch it here.

When Swedish singer/musician Anna von Hausswolff was young, her parents used to tell her stories about a place the family loved to visit. The location is steeped in a complicated history: a home, for example, to Sweden’s traditional folk music, it’s an area of outstanding natural beauty, but once provided the backdrop for a momentous uprising against the country’s king during which thousands of peasants were slaughtered, leaving its landscapes bathed in blood. It became, to her, a place of mystery, magic and terror, and, though she won’t say where it is, she still returns repeatedly, if sometimes only in her imagination. She calls the place Miraculous.

Much of the music on The Miraculous draws from these stories and images while making excessive use of the Acusticum Pipe Organ in Piteå, Northern Sweden, whose colossal sound – with nine thousand pipes, it’s one of the biggest of its kind in the country – swells heroically throughout the album. Inaugurated in 2012, and designed by Gerard Woehl, it lends the record a unique edge, enabling moments of true drama and supplying the brooding drones and dreamy soundscapes that provide the album’s foundations.

This magnificent instrument’s unusual features – built-in glockenspiel, vibraphone, celeste and percussion, as well as what von Hausswolff describes as “a screaming bird sound” produced by “pipes half covered in water” also further broadened the record’s aesthetic. In total, five days were spent recording the majority of the album’s substance live with it and 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.

Anna von Hausswolff has spent the majority of time since the release of her last album Ceremonytouring the world and playing special shows in very special settings such as the Lincoln Cathedral, in England’s East Midlands or the Town Hall during the Sydney Festival as well as headline tours, including China, and opening for bands such as Efterklang. She also recently lent vocals to the Royal Swedish Opera House’s ballet of A Midsummer Night’s Dream as their sole vocalist.

The Miraculous will be released on City Slang in Europe except Scandinavia, where it will be released through Anna's own label, Pomperipossa Records. Other Music will release it in North America. Pre-order link for all territories: http://smarturl.it/avhmdpo

The Miraculous tracklist:
1. Discovery
2. The hope only of empty men
3. Pomperipossa
4. Come wander with me / Deliverance
5. En ensam vandrare
6. An Oath
7. Evocation
8. The Miraculous
9. Stranger

Anna von Hausswolff live dates:

12.11. NEW YORK (US) Saint Vitus
02.12. HAMBURG (DE) Nordwind @ Kampnagel
03.12. KÖLN (DE) Gebäude 9
04.12. BERN (CH) Nordwind @ Dampfzentrale
05.12. DRESDEN (DE) Beatpol
06.12. BERLIN (DE) Nordwind @ Sophiensäle
08.12. LONDON (UK) Oslo (tickets)
11.12. DEN HAAG (NL) State X New Forms
12.12. GRONINGEN (NL) Vera
13.12. PARIS (FR) Le Petit Bain

Links:
Evocation video
Pre-Order link
Facebook page