Vital Weekly 576 (May 2007)
Since much of the work of Carl Micheal von Hausswolff deals with urban cities, it's perhaps strange to think that much of his output doesn't involve film. So far I only know of a book with pictures. Here now this is made with two films shot by Thomas Nordanstad with music of Hausswolff. The first film shows us the Battleship Island off the coast of Nagasaki. Here once 5000 people who work in the mines on the same island. All very small and since 1974 empty. The island and buildings are there but in decay, beautiful decay that is. Nature takes over. The other film is about nature, an oasis in Egypt. Here there is sign of human activity, but it's mainly about the desert. In the Japan film Hausswolff's music is a very deep sonic, almost unearthly rumble, whereas in the Egypt film it starts with a present drone, to which found songs are added. This may seem an odd ball for the new Hauswolff fans but in fact hark back to the early days of Phauss. Two quite contrasting films: the austerity of Hashima and the sunlight covered Al Qasr, with two contrasting pieces of music by Hausswolff. As two interesting extra's there is a small documentary on Hashima, about a guy who wants to turn it into a museum. A pity that the music behind this documentary is a bit kitschy documentary like, which sort of breaks with the Hausswolff pieces. The other is the two artists talking about these films and how they were made, intentions and what else about these locations, which is quite nice. It's great to see Hausswolff going into this direction. (FdW)