DEAD MAGIC

Anna launches "the dark side of the moon" via her newest creation "Dead Magic" filled with complicated sound dissonance, tragic melody association, and dark depressive ambience reflected for the inner mind of the audience, just like the weird sleeve pic. Actually I've got surprised at one of the tracks in the album "The Mysterious Vanishing Of Electra" via her bandcamp page before it was released officially. What a thoughtful, deeply atmospheric stuff. Definitely the audience would get immersed in Anna's pessimistic sadistic sound propaganda full of crazy, infernal shouts and dead serious sound of sensitivity. Understood this track would be one of her masterpieces.

"The Truth, The Glow, The Fall" is another gem flooded with bubbled sound effect and Anna's clear voice ... one is contradistinction to another, but both should be amazingly harmonized and crystallized. This phenomenon reminds me of kinda similar vein to Fille Qui Mousse's "Esplanade'. A massive claim of her soul is the third track "Ugly And Vengeful' drenched in shoegaze downtempo ambience. We must be invited beneath such an edgy black sea. "The Marble Eye' or "K'llans 'teruppst'ndelse' sounds more of fantasy of pipe organ, Anna's playground, monopoly ' pretty gorgeous, solemn ones.

Interesting is that every track has pop / catchy essence absorbing us easily regardless of dissected sound structure. Apparently we can imagine such a melodic / rhythmic contrast would have consisted of her life full of pleasure and serious hardship. For Anna's diverse, colourful appearance of soundscape, we fans can appreciate much more.

An extraordinary force is at work in Gothenborg, Dutch-born church organist-gone-wild, Anna Von Hausswolff is exploring very proggy, atmospheric, and experimental territory with this, her latest album. Music fitting the Post Rock bill but branching out in an extremely eerie, SWANS and DEAD CAN DANCE kind of way.

1. The Truth, The Glow, The Fall" (12:37) very similar to a DEAD CAN DANCE song with Lisa Gerrard in the lead vocal. Plodding, melodic, and absolutely brilliant! (10/10)

2. "The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra" (6:08) a SWANS-like song construct with drums, hand percussives, single- chord electric guitar strokes, and organ hits forming an electro-pulse foundation over which Anna's wild, banshee- like voice sings (wails) in a kind of Bernadette Peters-gone-wild voice. Amazing and powerful! What an impassioned vocal! So unexpected and powerful! May be the song of the year! I did not know Anna could sing like this! (10/10)

3. "Ugly and Vengeful" (16:17) spacious and atmospheric, this plodding song could easily come from either an ancient Greek tragedy or a SWANS album--or something by GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR. Powerful and unsettling. In the eleventh minute a metronomic bass drum and tom establish a shamanic or indigenous kind of beat for the first time in the song while guitars and, later, organ and voice take turns expanding the soundscape into infinity. (9/10)

4. "The Marble Eye" (5:18) a complex, layered solo church organ piece opening with breathy organ arpeggi which then get layered with bass pedal below and upper ocatve arpeggi above in the second half of the opening minute. Higher octave organ melody gets established over the aforementioned weave of arpeggi. Are some of these layers being looped? The melodies introduced in the second half of the third minute are powerful! Awesome, gorgeous song! (9.5/10)

5. "Källans återuppståndelse" (7:26) opens with slow-changing ethereal synth wash chords for the first two minutes before organ joins in as the dominant instrument over the top of the synth chords. Gorgeous, relaxing, and contemplative. Anna begins singing (in English) over the top at the 3:25 mark while accompanied by plaintive solo violin. Later, in the fifth minute, this violin becomes a full string section with raunchy, staticky electric guitar playing alongside. Great vocal, great arrangement, pretty yet eery and unsettling. (9.5/10)

Five full stars; a certifiable masterpiece of exciting, boundary-pushing progressive rock music! So well constructed and produced! One of the best albums of the decade!

4.5 stars. It's rare after all the music I've listened to over the years to come across something that's a little different. Anna from Sweden was influenced greatly by her dad and mom, an artistic couple with Carl Michael composing and releasing albums since the early 80's right up to today, he's also a visual artist but his music is described as experimental and electronic with the tape recorder being his main instrument. Mom is a professional photographer. Anna has a sister Maria a year older who like her mom is a professional photographer but also a director. Maria sings and is on many of Anna's records and also goes on tour with her in this capacity. She also did the cover art which is a photo. Anna meanwhile is not only a talented keyboardist and composer but what a singer! That surprised me especially when she gets theatrical and we hear that vocal range and passion that borders on the level of Courtney Swain from BENT KNEE.

This is probably the most known album by Anna, in fact her "Live at Montreux Jazz Festival" recording released this year features four of the six tracks from "Dead Magic" so Anna herself places a premium value on this record. The music itself is never in a hurry and man the atmosphere is pretty crazy on here. A six piece band of two guitarists, bass, drums, synths and Anna on vocals, pipe organ and mellotron.

We get three guests, one adding percussion on the opener, one strings on the opener and closer and finally Randall Dunn who recorded, mixed and produced this record but also he adds this granular sound design to all tracks plus more mellotron and synths. This album sounds unique and Randall deserves a lot of credit for this. So five tracks worth over 47 minutes and this is a trip folks.

The opener "The Truth, The Glow, The Fall" is over 12 minutes opening with silence before organ and static reveal themselves. Vocals before 2 minutes and I really like when she starts to really sing. A change after 3 1/2 minutes as vocals step aside and it starts to move with drums and more. She's back singing after 4 minutes and she sounds amazing holding those notes. It turns experimental before 8 minutes with a collage of sounds. Vocal melodies late strain to get those sounds out. Such emotion in thick atmosphere.

"The Mysterious Vanishing Of Electra" is a good rocking tune, a nice contrast to what mostly goes on here. Powerful too with Anna crying "...save me!" with such passion. She's belting it out before 6 minutes. Killer tune. "Ugly And Vengeful" makes me think of the album cover and this is the longest at over 16 minutes. The atmosphere is incredible early on then we get a calm around 5 minutes in as Anna starts to sing slowly. She steps aside after 6 1/2 minutes as powerful sounds take over including drums. She's crying out after 9 minutes, so moving. Things get pretty intense as this continues to play out and the vocals come and go but check them out in contrast to the atmosphere to the end. What a song!

"The Marble Eye" is different with a galore of keyboard sounds including organ and later mellotron. The closer is eerie to start before waves of sound take over and flood the soundscape. Moving and otherworldly. Vocals after 3 1/2 minutes and also later over that final minute. Powerful and touching.

Yes I'm bumping this up to the full 5 stars and without question a top five for 2018 for yours truly.