INTERVIEW BY BY MARIKA ZORZI
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GIANLUCA GRASSELLI
W
hen Anna Von Hausswolff visited the famous Sacro Bosco [Sacred Grove] garden in the center of Italy, she never forgot the experience. All Thoughts Fly, von Hausswolff’s new album, out now via Southern Lord, radiates a melancholic beauty and is distinguished by fluid transitions of contrasting elements, much like the sacred grove that inspired the music.
“Sacro Bosco, with its mysterious shimmer, really triggered my imagination, and once I was outside the gate, it felt as if I never really left,� von Hausswolff says. The incredible location contains grotesque, mythological sculptures and buildings overgrown with vegetation, situated in a wooded valley beneath the castle of Orsini. The sculptures include fantastical animals, colossal figures, mythological characters, grotesque heads, pseudo-Etruscan tombs, and fake ruins. “It’s a labyrinth of symbols,� von Hausswolff says. “The path between the monuments is equally as important as the monuments themselves because it presents a wild nature that overgrows the path, stairs, and even the sculptures. It adds a contrast of stillness to the
22 NEW NOISE
grotesque drama you find in the living rock. The calm songs on the album act as the paths, leading the way between and towards the more intense and absurd scenery, a labyrinth of sounds. Yet, in the making of the music, it was important for me to let the imagination wander and not to intellectualize it too much. The park inspires a free open mind, and I wanted to honor that both in Hausswolff says. “Its location, near the making and in the presentation.â€? my home, and its tuning—it’s the biggest quarter comma, meantone-temTo channel these feelings and tell pered organ in the world. The instruthe story of this place that inspired ment sounds like no other instrument her to write new music, von Hauss- I’ve ever heard. It has both an angelwolff embraced a solo instrumental ic, crystal-clear sound and a beautimode. The entire record consists of fully ugly, discordant sound. You can just one instrument, the pipe organ, easily create interesting tensions by which represents absolute libera- just making very basic chords.â€? tion of the imagination. Von Hausswolff was pleasantly “Ever since 2013, I've been thinking surprised during recording by the about making an entire album only organ's ability to create beautiful with pipe organ,â€? she says. “But, time pitching notes through its stops and wasn’t on my side. Due to COVID air supply system. -19, I managed to find the time and solitude to make this album. I wrote “The final sound of the album is defimost of the parts in my home and nitely determined by the mechanics some at the church.â€? of this organ,â€? she explains. “The process of creating was a combiThe organ on All Thoughts Fly is situ- nation of preparing pieces at home ated in the Ă–rgryte New Church, in and then adding texture and parts Gothenburg, Sweden, a replica of during the recording. Because I the Arp Schnitger organ in Germany. didn't have a meantone-tempered, pipe organ or synth at home, I had “I chose it for two reasons,â€? von to change the pieces radically, both
“THE CALM SONGS ON THE ALBUM ACT AS THE PATHS, LEADING THE WAY BETWEEN AND TOWARDS THE MORE INTENSE AND ABSURD SCENERY, A LABYRINTH OF SOUNDS.â€? in sound and structure.â€? All Thoughts Fly was recorded over seven days in January 2020. “It was a very still and calm recording process,â€? von Hausswolff says. “For the organ, we used eight microphones for close recordings of the pipes, so you can hear the mechanics of the instrument and the airflow, and we used two mics for the room in case we wanted to steer away from the body and into the room.â€? Realizing an album in 2020 is not easy with all that is going on in the world right now, and All Thoughts Fly is a uniquely beautiful story that von Hausswolff hopes can help people set their minds free. “I truly hope so. It helped me, so maybe it can help others,â€? she says. “I wouldn’t make music if I didn’t think it has the power to change things.â€? đ&#x;’Łđ&#x;’Łđ&#x;’Ł
