Carl Michael von Hausswolff

Last updated

Carl Michael von Hausswolff
CM von Hausswolff.jpg
von Hausswolff in 2008
Born1956 (age 6768)
Linköping, Sweden
Website cmvonhausswolff.net

Carl Michael von Hausswolff (born 1956) is a composer, visual artist, and curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. His main tools are recording devices (camera, tape deck, radar, sonar) used in an ongoing investigation of electricity, frequency, architectural space, and paranormal electronic interference. Major exhibitions include Manifesta (1996), documenta X (1997), the Johannesburg Biennial (1997), Sound Art - Sound as Media at ICC in Tokyo (2000), the Venice Biennale (2001, 2003, and 2005), and Portikus, Frankfurt (2004). Von Hausswolff received a Prix Ars Electronica award for Digital Music in 2002.

Von Hausswolff was born in Linköping. He is an expert in the work of Friedrich Jürgenson, an electronic voice phenomenon (EVP) researcher who claimed to have detected voices of the dead hidden in radio static. Von Hausswolff's own sound works are pure, intuitive studies of electricity, frequency, and tone. Collaborators include Erik Pauser, with whom he worked as Phauss (1981-1993), Leif Elggren, and John Duncan (artist). He also collaborates with EVP researcher Michael Esposito, filmmaker Thomas Nordanstad, and with Graham Lewis (Wire) and Jean-Louis Huhta in the band OSCID.

Von Hausswolff is noted for creating sound works that "charge the air with subliminal force" using "drones, radio signals, and sonic frequencies". [1]

Von Hausswolff is co-monarch (with Elggren) of the conceptual art project The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV): all areas of no-man's land, territories between national boundaries on both land and sea, and digital and mental spaces. This nation has its own national anthem, flag, coat of arms, currency, citizens, and ministers.

Recent audio works include "800 000 Seconds in Harar" (Touch), "Matter Transfer" (iDeal), "The Wonderful World of Male Intuition" (Oral), "There Are No Crows Flying Around the Hancock Building" (Lampo), "Rats", "Maggots", and "Bugs" (all three on Laton), "Three Overpopulated Cities ..." (Sub Rosa), "A Lecture on Disturbances in Architecture" (Firework Editions), and "Ström" and "Leech" (both on Raster-Noton).

Other visual works include "Red Pool" (Cities on the Move, Bangkok, 1999), "Red Night" (SITE Santa Fe, 1999), "Red Code" (CCA Kitakyushu, 2001), "Red Empty" (Lampo/WhiteWalls, Chicago, 2003), and "Red Mersey" (Liverpool Biennial, 2004).

He is also the curator and producer of the sound-installation "freq out", shown at Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Henie-Onstad Center (Oslo), Sonambiente (Berlin), and other places.

Around the year 1986, he formed the Swedish independent label Radium 226.05 and in 1990 he formed the label Anckarström.

In 2012, Von Hausswolff was heavily criticized for allegedly using ashes of Holocaust victims from the Majdanek concentration camp in a painting. [2] As of 12 December 2012, the Martin Bryder Gallery in Lund had pulled the painting from exhibition. [3]

In 2019, von Hausswolff formed a new musical collaboration with the Icelandic musician Jónsi (Sigur Rós), which they named Dark Morph. On 10 May 2019, they released their first album, also titled Dark Morph. The project "promises to explore the ramifications of ongoing environmental collapse to the oceans and its inhabitants." [4] The album consists mainly of ambient sounds, often simulating the sounds of animals and nature, and contains very few actual melodies.

Carl Michael is the father of musician/composer Anna von Hausswolff. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigur Rós</span> Icelandic post-rock band

Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock band that formed in 1994 in Reykjavík. It comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals, and their use of bowed guitar, Sigur Rós incorporate classical and minimal aesthetic elements. Jónsi's vocals are sung in Icelandic and non-linguistic vocalisations the band terms Vonlenska. They have released eight studio albums, and attracted critical and commercial attention with their second album Ágætis byrjun.

<i>( )</i> (album) 2002 studio album by Sigur Rós

( ) is the third studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, released on 28 October 2002. It comprises eight untitled tracks, divided into two parts: the first four tracks are lighter and more optimistic, while the latter four are bleaker and more melancholic. The two-halves are divided by a 36-second silence, and the album opens and closes with a click of distortion. Lead singer Jón Þór Birgisson ("Jónsi") sang the album's lyrics entirely in "Hopelandic", a made-up language consisting of gibberish words. ( ) reached No. 51 on the Billboard 200 and received acclaim from music critics, although some reviewers found the album weaker than the band's previous album Ágætis byrjun.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liverpool Biennial</span> Contemporary art festival in Liverpool

Liverpool Biennial is the largest international contemporary art festival in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leif Elggren</span> Musical artist

Leif Elggren, is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jónsi</span> Icelandic musician (born 1975)

Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson is an Icelandic musician; he is the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist for the Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. He is known for his use of a cello bow on guitar and his "angelic" falsetto or countertenor voice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amiina</span> Icelandic band

Amiina is an Icelandic band composed of members Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Sólrún Sumarliðadóttir, Magnús Trygvason Eliassen and Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson. In the past they have frequently performed live and in the studio with Sigur Rós.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kjartan Sveinsson</span> Musical artist

Kjartan Sveinsson is an Icelandic musician who is the keyboardist for the post-rock band Sigur Rós. He joined the band in 1998. A multi-instrumentalist, he has also played such instruments as the flute, tin whistle, oboe, guitar and the banjo, as well as many of the unorthodox instruments that contribute to Sigur Rós's distinctive sound.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Duncan (artist)</span> American performance and sound artist

John Duncan is an American multi-platform artist whose body of work includes performance art, installations, contemporary music, video art and experimental film, often involving the extensive use of recorded sound. His music is composed mainly of recordings from shortwave radio, field recordings and voice. His events and installations are a form of existential research, often confrontational in nature. Duncan currently lives in Bologna, Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franz Pomassl</span> Musical artist

Pomassl is an electronic sound and recording artist and DJ residing in Vienna, Austria, and is a co-founder of the Austrian Laton experimental techno label.

Michael Esposito is an experimental artist and researcher in Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Somers</span> American visual artist and musician

Alex Somers is an American visual artist and musician from Baltimore, Maryland, who attended Berklee College of Music and Listaháskóli Íslands. Somers lives and works in Los Angeles. Previously he ran a recording studio in downtown Reykjavík where he produced, engineered, and mixed since 2010.

<i>Riceboy Sleeps</i> 2009 studio album by Jónsi & Alex

Riceboy Sleeps is the debut studio album by ambient duo Jónsi & Alex, released on 20 July 2009. The album is a collaboration between Sigur Rós vocalist Jón Þór Birgisson and partner Alex Somers which features acoustic instrumental music alongside a string quartet, Amiina, and the Kópavogsdætur Choir.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Instrumenti</span>

Instrumenti are an Electronic Indie Pop music band from Latvia, Riga, originally formed by two academically educated musicians Shipsi and Reynsi. In 2014, band's producer Gatis Zaķis became full member.

Herman Gvardjančič, is a Slovene painter.

<i>Valtari</i> 2012 studio album by Sigur Rós

Valtari is the sixth studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. It was released on 23 May 2012 by Parlophone. The album reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart and seven on the Billboard 200. The album was met with positive reviews as well with Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 74, based on 36 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

<i>Kveikur</i> 2013 studio album by Sigur Rós

Kveikur is the seventh studio album from Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós. It was released 12 June 2013 in Japan, on 17 June internationally, and on 18 June in the United States through XL Recordings. It is the only album to be fully released through XL after the band departed EMI and Parlophone during the label's acquisition by Universal Music Group in 2012. It is the only album since their debut, Von, not to feature Kjartan Sveinsson, following his departure in 2012, and the last to feature drummer Orri Páll Dýrason before his departure in 2018. The cover is a photo by the Brazilian artist Lygia Clark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elgaland-Vargaland</span> Art project and micronation

Elgaland-Vargaland is a conceptual art project and micronation conceived and developed by Swedish artists Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Leif Elggren in 1992. It is also known by its acronym "KREV".

Sigga Björg Sigurðardóttir is an Icelandic artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nordic pavilion</span>

The Nordic Pavilion houses the national representation of the Nordic countries Sweden, Norway, and Finland during the Venice Biennale arts festivals.

<i>Átta</i> 2023 studio album by Sigur Rós

Átta is the eighth studio album by Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Rós, released through Von Dur and BMG Rights Management on 16 June 2023. It is their first studio album in 10 years, following Kveikur (2013), and is their first since 2012's Valtari to feature keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson, who rejoined the band in 2022. The seven-minute lead single "Blóðberg" was released on 12 June 2023 alongside its music video, directed by Johan Renck. Physical editions of the album were released on 1 September 2023. The band embarked on a tour from June to August 2023 backed by a 41-piece orchestra, during which they debuted songs from the album.

References

  1. LaBelle, Brian (2015). Background Noise, Second Edition: Perspectives on Sound Art. Bloomsbury. p. 330.
  2. "Swedish artist uses 'ashes from Holocaust victims'". BBC News. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  3. "Swedish gallery pulls painting made of Holocaust victims' ashes". JTA. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
  4. Bote, Joshua (1 May 2019). "Inspired By Environmental Crisis, Sigur Rós' Jónsi Announces New Duo Dark Morph". npr.org. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  5. Hughes, Rob (18 December 2015). "Limelight: Anna Von Hausswolf". Prog . Retrieved 30 October 2023.