Anna von Hausswolff is a Swedish singer-songwriter, musician and composer from Gothenburg. Born in 1986, Anna Michaela Ebba Electra von Hausswolff begins making music while studying architecture at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. She is the daughter of avant-garde sound artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff.

Early releases

Her debut single, “Track of Time”, appears in 2010, along with an EP of the same name on Kning Disk. Her first album, Singing From the Grave, also arrives in 2010 and receives a warm response in the Swedish press. She plays at Way Out West in 2009 before her recordings are released, and in 2010 she opens for Tindersticks on three occasions and tours Brazil with Taken by Trees and Taxi Taxi!.

Style and performance

Von Hausswolff’s music is closely associated with the pipe organ and gothic-styled song writing. Her voice is described as moving between tenderness and force, and her live presence is noted as strong and expressive. Her work is often compared with artists such as Diamanda Galás, Nico, Yma Sumac, Kate Bush and Siouxsie Sioux, and it also draws on krautrock, with references to Einstürzende Neubauten and Swans. She also works within the genres of ambient, art pop, art rock, drone, electronic and experimental rock, and she is associated with Bada and Pomperipossa Records.

Albums and recordings

In 2011 she opens for Lykke Li three times and for M. Ward at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. She plays several major Swedish festivals, including Peace and Love, Storsjöyran, Arvika and Made Festival. Her album Ceremony appears in 2013, and she performs her first US show at Glasslands Gallery in Brooklyn the following day. The Miraculous follows in 2015 and centres on the pipe organ, particularly the 9,000-pipe Acusticum Organ. The record is inspired by a rural place in Sweden linked to natural beauty and the memory of a crushed peasant uprising, and its sound combines elements of post-rock, prog, doom metal, modern classical music and church music.

Dead Magic is released in 2018. It is produced with Randall Dunn and recorded on the pipe organ at Copenhagen’s Marble Church. Before the album, she releases “The Vanishing of Elektra” and “The Truth, The Glow, The Fall”. She sings on Wolves in the Throne Room’s “Born From the Serpent’s Eye”, contributes guest vocals with her sister Maria on Swans’ Leaving Meaning, and appears on Sunn O)))’s live album Metta, Benevolence.

All Thoughts Fly appears in 2020 and is recorded on the pipe organ at Örgryte New Church in Gothenburg, which is described as the largest organ in the world tuned in quarter-comma meantone temperament. Her sixth studio album, Iconoclasts, is released in 2025 and includes the double single “Stardust” and “The Whole Woman”.

Live work and organ performances

In 2022 her music is performed at Union Chapel in London on the opening night of Organ Reframed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, alongside works by Ipek Gorgun and Abul Mogard. In 2021 several planned or scheduled concerts in France and Belgium are disrupted by protests after accusations of satanic themes; she denies those accusations. Her music often uses the pipe organ as a physical instrument played with hands and feet together, with stop changes used to alter its sound.

Recordings

Her studio albums are Singing From the Grave, Ceremony, The Miraculous, Dead Magic, All Thoughts Fly and Iconoclasts. She also releases the EPs Track of Time, Källan (Prototype) and Källan (Betatype), and the live album Live at Montreux Jazz Festival.