Take what is the destiny of a human being, a thin pathetic line that marks and surrounds the neverending and the unknown silence. Right in that silence, in its imaginary and unfamiliar center, legends come to life. This is why our time knows no legends. Our time is barren from silence and secrets without which legends can not emerge.
This verse of relatively unknown Swedish poet Walter Ljungquist was the only promo material for Anna von Hausswolff's fourth studio album Dead Magic. In an interview, Anna noted that she doesn't want to explain the songs from this record, rather that she is on the path of finding her raw, stripped and free voice within. She referred both to the voice as the vocal and the voice as the inner instinct. Dead Magic directly points at magic, spirituality, primordiality, and their absence in today's world.
The album is the result of the attempt to find the magic within and magic in the outside world. According to Anna, death of magic is when a person who creates does not see the magic in what he or she is doing. Anna became fully aware of her strength, which is her vocal. In combination with organ and powerful orchestration, the artist is finally blooming. Organ is the centerpiece of the album, due to its super power to emphasize the vocal interpretation. Five songs of Dead Magic were conceptualized as one, but Anna also felt the pressure to respect the commercial format of the music album. This is also where the title came from. It's as If Hausswolff is trying to tell us that formatting magic means killing it.
Dead Magic was recorded in a Marmorkirken church in Copenhagen, which is pretty convenient for the prominence of organ. Dark, chamber atmosphere massive sound and strong expressive quality can be noticed from the go, on the first track titled The Truth, The Glow, The Fall that resembles Diamanda Galas and Meredith Monk, singers who are known for pushing the boundaries of vocal interpretation. Female sexuality is the subtext of the song, but also of the whole record.
The Mysterious Vanishing of Electra is the most intimate number. Interestingly enough, the vocal overshadows the organ here. Still, the organ arrangements reach its climax in Ugly and Vengeful, the longest composition that shows all the glory of this album. The Marble Eye brings church ambience to your room.
Dead Magic is creatively the most convincing album of Anna von Hausswolff, the artist who knows how to deliver magic.
