Anna von Hausswolff
Iconoclasts

THE REVIEW

Swedish, born in ’86, Anna von Hausswolff returns in 2025 with her sixth album, a work that confirms the absolute uniqueness of her artistic journey. Her career is living proof that there are still those who compose and release music out of creative urgency and a radical fidelity to their own vision—not to chase algorithms, fleeting trends, or yet another hypersexualized packaging imposed by the industry.

Iconoclasts is an album constructed with rigor and courage, a work that breathes and moves within a vast sonic landscape without ever losing its sense of direction. This new effort weaves together deep drones and ambient atmospheres, restless and rigorous songwriting, echoes of Swans-like haunted folk, free jazz outbursts recalling the spiritual fury of Coltrane’s Ascension, and a pulsating, hypnotic krautrock heart. A heterogeneous set that, in less capable hands, would have collapsed under its own weight.

The miracle lies precisely here: the ability to make all this coexist in a surprising equilibrium, without prolixity, narcissism, or dispersion. Every musical choice seems necessary; every deviation strengthens the overall picture. The result is an album that moves forward with determination—dense, emotionally magnetic, able to dive unhesitatingly into the heart of the listener.

A mature, powerful, and vivid work. An album that offers no shortcuts and needs none. Discone, nel senso più pieno del termine.