On “Facing Atlas”, Swedish Musician and composer Anna von Hausswolff’s breaks open the gates into a warm sound world. Her ethereal vocals meld with echoing drums, a murmuring church organ alongside reverberating guitars and a swirling saxophone as she herself becomes one figure in this fluttering aural space.
“‘Facing Atlas’ is about the risks of commitment; to be bound to something until you no longer feel control over yourself and your direction in life. A destiny can feel like a prison if it’s not chosen by heart’s desire,” von Hausswolff reveals.
It’s the latest single from her forthcoming album ICONOCLASTS due October 31 via YEAR0001, her first with the label. Throughout the years von Hausswolff’s releases cemented her as an artist of unpredictable and vast creativity – always moving forward, always fusing tradition with experimentation in unimaginable ways. On ICONOCLASTS, her sound evolves again, bringing a poppier and more vibrant element to her moving songs. 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.
On ICONOCLASTS, her ensemble is expanded to include the virtuoso saxophonist Otis Sandsjö, who brings his 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.
