Anna von Hausswolff Announces First U.S. Tour

Finally, audiences in major U.S. cities will have an opportunity to experience singer / pianist Anna von Hausswolff's striking and deeply felt music live. She will tour the country for the first time, beginning December 4 in Washington, DC, performing material from her celebrated album Ceremony (July 9, Other Music Recording Co.). Please see below for an itinerary of shows.

Anna von Hausswolff hails from Sweden, the land of midnight sun, black metal and Ingmar Bergman. Ceremony is primarily inspired by the death of her grandfather three years ago, and is informed by Anna's childhood, when she and her sister sang in choirs and spent much time around their father, the renowned avant-garde artist and composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff, as he worked with artists ranging from William S. Burroughs to Union Carbide Productions. To record this tribute to her grandfather, Anna, a unique and powerful singer, accompanies herself on that most sacred of instruments, the church organ. The result is a work that combines intimacy and majestic grandeur.

Among the music press that has hailed Ceremony, von Hausswolff's first U.S. release, is NPR Music's Bob Boilen, who wrote, "When you put on Anna von Hausswolf's second album, Ceremony, everything around you changes. That ability to be instantly distinct is the mark of any great record; it's a vibe, and here that vibe is dramatic and stark and, as Ceremony progresses, surprising...von Hausswolff's voice possesses the power to soar with those mighty pipes and still hold tight to delicate, personal emotions." The Village Voice called Ceremony a "beautiful, elegiac song cycle." Reviewing her only U.S. live show to date, in July at Brooklyn's Glasslands, Brooklyn Vegan noted von Hausswolf's "seriously spine-tingling pipes."

Growing up in Gothenburg's bohemian neighborhood of Haga, Anna and her younger sister, Maria, were surrounded by art and music. They lived with their mother in a small apartment nestled amongst concert halls, record shops, galleries and cafés. Music was everywhere, and none was more impactful than that of the girls' own father. The senior von Hausswolff's sound experiments and art installations opened his young daughters' minds to a world of inspiration, and the headquarters of the Haga-based Radium label he founded in 1986, the same year Anna was born, became a playground and hideout for the sisters, a smoke-filled cabinet of wonders where a vast array of iconic artists took up residence amongst the girls' schoolbooks and playthings.

After high school, Anna began to pursue a lifelong interest in architecture at Chalmers University before moving to Copenhagen to continue her studies of art and architecture at the Royal Academy of Art, where she is currently enrolled. And yet, as her studies continued, her musical passion only deepened, and in 2009 Anna released her first EP on Kning Disk, Track of Time, followed in 2010 by her debut full-length, Singing from the Grave. The album received rave reviews across Sweden and took various awards, and Anna toured across Scandinavia numerous times. Since Kning Disk released Ceremony in Sweden last summer, the album has received near-universal critical praise and was nominated for two Swedish Grammys and a Nordic Prize.

For the U.S. dates, von Hausswolff will be joined by her Swedish band: Filip Leyman (keyboards), Karl Vento (guitar) and Ulrik Ording (drums).

The North American release by Other Music Recording Co. (distributed by Fat Possum) on July 9 followed an acclaimed U.K. / E.U. release by City Slang on June 17.

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF U.S. TOUR DATES

December 4
Washington, DC
Lang Theatre
Atlas Performing Arts Center

December 5
Philadelphia, PA
Johnny Brenda's

December 6
Brooklyn, NY
Union Hall

December 7
New York, NY
Mercury Lounge

December 9
Chicago, IL
Schubas Tavern

December 10
Minneapolis, MN
7th St. Entry

December 13
Seattle, WA
The Vera Project

December 14
Portland, OR
Doug Fir Lounge

December 16
San Francisco, CA
Rickshaw Stop

December 17
Los Angeles, CA
Bootleg Bar

NPR Field Recordings, taped at NYC's Christ Church
http://www.npr.org/event/music/217277491/anna-von-hausswolff-finds-a-pipe-organ-in-new-york-city

NPR Weekend Edition with Scott Simon
http://www.npr.org/2013/07/13/201085778/anna-von-hausswolff-an-artist-in-thrall-to-a-mega-instrument