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Ceremony is the second studio album by Swedish musician Anna von Hausswolff. It was released on 18 July 2012 in Sweden by Kning Disk. The album incorporates the pipe organ, which was recorded at the Annedal Church in Gothenburg and became von Hausswolff's first work to include that instrument. Ceremony is primarily a gothic rock record that spans from folk to drone styles, but also art pop, post-rock, noise, and ambient.

Ceremony
Studio album by Anna von Hausswolff
Released	18 July 2012 (2012-07-18)
Recorded	2012
Studio	Annedal Church (Gothenburg)
Genre	Gothic rock folk drone art pop post-rock noise ambient
Length	60:59
Language	English Swedish
Label	Kning Disk City Slang Other Music Recording Co.
Producer	Filip Leyman
Anna von Hausswolff chronology
Singing from the Grave (2010) Ceremony (2012) The Miraculous (2015)
Singles from Ceremony
"Mountains Crave" Released: 28 June 2012 "Deathbed" Released: 22 March 2013

Ceremony was followed by a worldwide re-release in Europe and North America in June and July 2013, respectively. The album received generally positive reviews from music critics and was nominated at the Grammis Awards, and the Nordic Music Prize. The album was a commercial success in Sweden, peaking at number 5 on the Swedish Albums Chart. The songs "Mountains Crave" and "Deathbed" were released as singles.

Background and release

Anna von Hausswolff stated that during the recording of Ceremony in 2012, it was the first time she played the pipe organ, an instrument that would later become the main one in her following albums.[1] The album was recorded at the Annedal Church in Gothenburg, Sweden which, despite having a small organ, it "sounds really big because of the massive room, with cold walls made of stone."[2] The recording process of the album was revealed through videos uploaded to her YouTube channel between May and June 2012.[3]

Ceremony was re-released on 14 June 2013 in Europe by City Slang and on 9 July 2013 in North America by Other Music Recording Co.[4] The album's artwork features a close-up of organ pipes, reflecting on the use of that instrument in the music.[2] "Mountains Crave", the album's lead single, was released on 28 June 2012.[5] Its music video, directed by Anders Nydam, was released on 18 June 2012.[6] "Deathbed" was issued as a single following the announcement of the album's re-release.[7] Von Hausswolff's sister directed its music video, and it features her brothers.[8]

To promote the album, von Hausswolff made several live performances. Her performance of "Mountains Crave" premiered through Stereogum's website on 16 May 2013.[9]

Music and lyrics

Ceremony blends several styles. Primarily a gothic rock album, it also combines folk,[10] drone,[8] art pop, post-rock,[11] noise, and ambient.[12] The album makes prominent use of the pipe organ in nine tracks and differs sonically from Singing from the Grave, which had the piano as main instrument.[13][2] Other instruments present in Ceremony are piano, synthesizers,[10] hand-claps, bass guitar, and discordant percussion.[14] The lyrical themes are predominantly about death and loss, with von Hausswolff saying that it was inspired by the death of his grandfather.[12][13] Fabiana Giovanetti of London in Stereo wrote that "the lyrics are positively Byron-esque, resembling the British Romantic decadence of the 1800s.[15]

Songs

Ceremony opens with the track "Epitaph of Theodor", an instrumental that incorporates a church organ melody.[16] It is followed by "Deathbed", in which von Hausswolff's voice does not appear until the middle of the song, and then returns to instrumental.[8] The longest track in the album, it is an 8-minute cut that features organ, brushed cymbals, and echoing guitar, as well as her voice that "soars operatically and growls emphatically".[10][7] "Mountains Crave" is a pop song built on three chords and features a "rudimentary 808 snare clap."[4]

"Epitaph of Daniel" was compared to the work of Angelo Badalamenti for the series Twin Peaks.[16] "No Body" serves as an interlude that experiments with noise and ambient genres, while "Liturgy of Light" is a folk song "that sounds like it's being played in a subterranean cave."[12] "Harmonica" was written after von Hausswolff's grandfather, who gave her an harmonica, died. The track discusses "how culture and traditions can travel from generation down to generation."[13] In "Ocean", the singer's "Bush-like" vocals are accompanied by piano and a gospel choir.[12] The "nearly classical" "Sova" is the only song in the album with lyrics written in Swedish, von Hausswolff's native language and is backed by percussion, crashing guitars, and thunderous drums.[10][17]

Reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.6/10[18]
Metacritic	77/100[19]
Review scores
Source	Rating
The 405	7/10[20]
AllMusic	[10]
Filter	83%[21]
GIGsoup	[22]
The Line of Best Fit	7.5/10[8]
Mojo	[23]
MusicOMH	[12]
The Skinny	[16]
Uncut	[24]

Ceremony received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 77, based on seven reviews.[19] Paul Smith from GIGsoup gave the album a perfect score, commenting that the inclusion of the church organ "gives a ghostly feel and compliments the vocals perfectly."[22] Peter Margasak of the Chicago Reader stated that despite not "entirely ditch[ing] th[e pop] template" from Singing from the Grave, Ceremony "radically altered the complexion of [von Hausswolff's] music, giving it a severe intensity and sense of grandeur."[25] Similarly, Nothing but Hope and Passion magazine's Henning Grabow agreed that the album "is clearly still pop music, yet it is of an unlimited, profound and ambitious sort" and that "it's just music that's passionately digging in the peripheries where, naturally, a lot of darkness is to be found."[26]

Calling Ceremony "a rare, thoughtful, inspiring record", Bob Boilen from NPR found that "von Hausswolff's voice possesses the power to soar with those mighty pipes and still hold tight to delicate, personal emotions."[27] Nevertheless, a more mixed review came from The New York Times's Ben Ratliff, who thought that her voice "isn't quite as big as she wants it to be, and her own instrumental writing is simple and limited", further adding that "the record is awkward and seriously pretentious at times, but you can't miss the heat of its ambition."[28] Ceremony was nominated for two Swedish Grammis and a Nordic Music Prize nomination.[27] Upon its initial release, Ceremony entered Sweden's Sverigetopplistan chart at number five. Following its 2013 re-release, the record reached number 58 in that country.[29]

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of Ceremony.[30]

Musicians

• Anna von Hausswolff – vocals, pipe organ, piano, synthesizer
• Maria von Hausswolff – vocals (tracks 8–10, 13)
• Xenia Krissin – vocals (tracks 10, 12), zither
• Filip Leyman – synthesizer, percussion
• Karl Vento – guitar
• Joel Fabiansson – guitar
• Daniel Ögren – guitar, clavioline
• Christopher Cantillo – drums

Production

• Filip Leyman – production, recording, mixing
• Philip Granqvist – mastering

Design

• Anna von Hausswolff – design, layout, inner sleeve drawing
• Magnus Andersson – layout
• Maria von Hausswolff – cover photograph

Charts

Chart (2012)	Peak position
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[29]	5

Release history

Release dates and formats for Ceremony

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label	Ref.
Sweden	18 July 2012	Digital download	Kning Disk	[31]
Europe	14 June 2013	Digital download	City Slang	[32]
United States	9 July 2013	Digital download LP	Other Music Recording Co.	[33]

References

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