Iconoclasts

Composer, singer, keyboardist, and conceptualist Anna von Hausswolff aptly titled her 75-minute seventh studio album Iconoclasts. First, she embodies both definitions of the word: She challenges accepted spiritual and societal beliefs, and is also a creator who subverts notions of history, religious ritual, and imagery in search of mystery. Iconoclasts also refers to the music on this recording. Von Hausswolff doesnt surrender her doomy, gothically elegiac sound here. Instead, with co-producer and multi-instrumentalist Filip Leyman, she explores Baroque maximalism, threaded alternately and sometimes simultaneously with folk music, doom metal, goth, experimental rock, drone, industrial moments, and indie chamber pop. She employs strings, reeds, and winds, as well as a rock band. Vocal guests include Ethel Cain, Iggy Pop, and sister Maria von Hausswolff. Saxophonist/clarinetist Otis Sandsjo serves as music director. Strings were arranged by Martin Schaub. Opener "The Beast" is an instrumental, weaving together modal saxophones, clarinets and strings. Its circular vamp tempers rumbling, dissonant ambience before percussion breaks the tension as a synth enters sounding like a jet engine take-off, before concluding with organ and reeds in gentle conversation. On "Facing Atlas," von Hausswolff and her swirling organ embrace the mythical figure doomed to hold the world on his shoulders. As tympanies and kick drums commence a processional rhythm, she soars with a gorgeous melodic hook that recalls Dead Can Dance. "The Iconoclast" commences with a tribal drum kit offering tom-toms and kick drums, as a keyboard pattern drawn right from Steve Reichs classical keyboard and string minimalism enter before von Hausswolff begins singing in her high register. She sounds like a young Kate Bush before the music explodes with martial intensity. It becomes, for a time, a fist-pumping rocker with a touch of warmth provided by Sandsjos warbling clarinet. Von Hausswolffs vocal eventually reaches the threshold of the eternal she seeks. The artist sings with Iggy Pop on the doomy yet lush Celtic goth ballad "The Whole Woman." His gravelly vocals are perfectly suited to von Hausswolffs lyrics and ethereal approach. He underscores her vocal with world weariness in the grain of his voice. Ethel Cain appears on single "Aging Young Women." Its lyrics address times passage amid unfulfilled hopes and dreams. Von Hausswolffs organ becomes a third voice, droning, devotional, transforming what could be a liturgical hymn into a hook-laden Gothic lament. Cains delivery adds a Southern Gothic weight that grounds the songs atmospheric approach. "Struggle with the Beast" is another instrumental led by Sandsjos circular saxophone pattern before drums, organ, strings, electronics, guitars, and more flood the center, ratcheting intensity with every measure, then crisscrossing Celtic music with classical drone and modal jazz. Director, cinematographer, and sister Maria von Hausswolff joins on the utterly heartbreakingly beautiful "Unconditional Love," for a balladic paean to familial bonds that tie disparate individuals together. At albums end, most longtime fans will be astonished by von Hausswolffs masterful developmental achievement, as well as the emotional and spiritual power, poetics, and musicality of Iconoclasts. For newcomers, this album presents a near perfect, accessible entry into her recordings. ~ Thom Jurek