Joyzine Ceremony review 5/5
☆☆☆☆☆
When I read the name Anna von Hausswolff pick my brain automatically search for a music encyclopedia and puts her in between Anna Järvinen and Anna Ternheim. I shake off my prejudices cap, triggers “Ceremony” and is still quite shocked. The largely instrumental opening track Epitaph Of Theodor and Deathbed is a total of 14 minutes long droneorgasm that is unlike anything I’ve heard some Swedish bands perform.
Only after one listened through want every minute to have a personal description. Each song is a journey from which it emerges sensory experiences rather than traditional connotations, and it’s not something you encounter every day. Goodbye paints open landscapes using cover dark organ pipes, Liturgy of Light sounds like a jazz club night in water and Sova is by no means a cinematic experience that actually makes me think of Tolkien. Everything under a veil of Anna’s voice, just as most have noticed, indeed, sounds like Kate Bush.
This is almost certainly not music to everyone. But for those who love experimentation and innovation “Ceremony” is a must to explore. The ability to let the music cross the border between the composition of melodies and beats to something more like something completely different cultural medium rare. How corny and New Age hokey as it sounds - buy the disc, put you in bed and try out what is happening at you!
Jesper Robild
