Review Summary: “Come here, I'll whisper something new”
It came out of nowhere when Anna von Hausswolff announced in 2021 her first live record, despite of doing some live videos from her 2018 world tour. Besides that, she did a 20-minute live session on KEXP back in 2013; a 4-episode documentary about the recording of her second LP; and some live clips. Regarding the successful Dead Magic tour, those concerts were memorable, powerful, ominous, and beautiful, showing Anna’s incredible vocal skills and her band’s energy. That’s exactly what Live at Montreux Jazz Festival archived.
Across six tracks, Anna performs a well-known repertoire from her two acclaimed albums: The Miraculous and naturally Dead Magic. The live nature of this record helps it a lot, mostly because the musicians master powerful dynamics and mix so naturally with her singing, including additional vocal from her sister Maria von Hausswolff. There’s a certain flow that goes through the concert. Almost like an immense ride, the music shifts from transcendental and hypnotic moods to an intense experience full of drama and dissonance.
For a moment, it recreated the astonished feeling of being there in one of those concerts. The loudness hitting one’s body, restraining the audience’s breath with the music’s mystical force that keeps immerging as if spellbound. The effortless vibrato dancing through the room. Impossible to fight back, one must allow being seduced by Anna’s atmosphere.
On this stunning live album, Anna von Hausswolff, a rather small woman in stature, stands unbelievably like a giant before the audience. This record amazingly captures the concert’s essence that goes from absolutely horrifying to categorically uplifting. For those who went to one of those concerts, this will be a time-capsule back to that night. For those who doesn’t, here is just an energy fragment of Anna’s unique performance.
