SWANS have announced details of their seventeenth studio album, “Birthing”, due for release in North America on May 30 via Mute/Young God Records. “Birthing” will be released on triple vinyl (in a brown chipboard sleeve),double CD (in a brown chipboard digipack) and digitally. Initial pressings of the triple vinyl and CD editions will come with a bonus DVD featuring “Swans Live 2024 (Rope) The Beggar”, a live concert film directed by Marco Porsia from the last SWANS U.S. tour, plus Christopher Nicholson‘s documentary from Michael Gira‘s solo tour in 2022 titled “I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me To Sing”.
Listen to the first track to be shared, “I Am A Tower”, below.
Michael Gira of SWANS says: “The material contained in this album was largely developed over the course of a yearlong SWANS tour, during 2023-2024 (‘The Healers’, ‘I Am a Tower’, ‘Birthing’, ‘Guardian Spirit’, ‘Rope’ and ‘Away’),then recorded and further orchestrated and rearranged in the studio. Two pieces were created and performed in the studio (‘Red Yellow’, ‘The Merge’).
“In all cases, the material began with me sitting in my office with an acoustic guitar, singing and dreaming about what would become of these skeletal songs. I’m blessed to have such a stellar group of musicians to work with live (listed below),and through improvisation, endless revisions and an intensity of focus in performance (not to mention endurance),over the course of time the music morphed into what you generally hear on this collection.
“This album, coupled with the recent live release, ‘Live Rope’, constitutes my final foray (as producer / impresario) into the all-consuming sound worlds that have been my obsession for years. We’ll do a final tour in this mode towards the end of 2025, then that’s it. After that, SWANS will continue, so long as I’m able, but in a significantly pared down form. Hints of that direction can be found in a few moments on the current album. In the meantime, my hope is that the music provides a positive and fertile atmosphere in which to dream.”
SWANS “Birthing” album contributors:
* Michael Gira – acoustic guitar, voice, producer
* Phil Puleo – drums, hammer dulcimer, flute, melodica, percussion
* Kristof Hahn – lap steel guitar, electric and acoustic guitars, loops, backing vocals
* Dana Schechter – lap steel guitar, bass guitar, loops
* Christopher Pravdica – bass guitar, Taishogoto, loops, sounds, keyboards
* Larry Mullins – Mellotron, keyboards, piano, synthesizer, drums, vibraphone, percussion, backing vocals
* Norman Westberg – electric guitar, loops
Guest musicians:
* Jennifer Gira – backing vocals, cameo vocals
* Laura Carbone and Lucy Kruger – backing vocals
* Andreas Dormann – soprano saxophone
* Timothy Wyskida – drums on “The Merge”
* Little Mikey – cameo vocals
“Birthing” was produced by Michael Gira. Recorded at Soundfabrik Berlin, recording engineer Ingo Krauss, assisted by Kiron Gaudi, and mixed at Candy Bomber Studio, Berlin by Ingo Krauss. Mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose, Berlin.
“Birthing” track listing:
01. The Healers
02. I Am a Tower
03. Birthing
04. Red Yellow
05. Guardian Spirit
06. The Merge
07. Rope
08. Away
Gira founded the groundbreaking New York City band SWANS in 1982. Initially notorious for their relentless, brutal, high-volume onslaughts of sound, the extreme, abject imagery of Gira‘s lyrics and his thundering vocals, SWANS would undergo a series of startling transformation over the next 15 years. Following the punishing “Filth” and “Cop” albums, the ensemble would venture into harshly mechanical proto-industrial rock of their “Greed” period, then both haunted atmospheric idylls and martial stomps on 1987’s landmark “Children Of God” double album. They’d conjure gentler acoustic-based meditations on “The Burning World” (1989),then after relocating to Atlanta grand, melody-dense sonic whirlwinds of the “White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity” (1991) and “Love Of Life” (1993) era, becoming more dissonant and sharp-edged with “The Great Annihilator” (1994). Finally, the ultimate statement of that epoch of SWANS, “Soundtracks For The Blind” (1996),incorporated all of these elements across well over two hours of music. At this point, Gira called it quits after 15 years of non-stop recording and touring, disbanding the group. For the next 13 years, he’d make a long series of acclaimed albums and perform live extensively with a revolving roster of musicians under the name ANGELS OF LIGHT. Gira also discovered, produced and released albums by other musicians through his label Young God Records. He cultivated such talents as Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family, among others, the original figures of the late ’00s avant-folk movement.
In 2010, he reactivated SWANS, releasing the studio album “My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky” to ecstatic critical response and touring the world for the better part of a year. “The Seer”, a triple album studio set, came out in 2012 and was celebrated by another lengthy world tour eliciting more media praise and album sales that landed “The Seer” on Billboard’s Top 200. SWANS‘ next release, “To Be Kind” (another triple vinyl) debuted at No. 36 on Billboard’s Top 200 Sales chart and No. 5 on their Independent Sales chart. The group sold out 47 concert dates in their subsequent touring including selling out two-night stands in cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Paris, as well as single shows in London, Berlin and Rome. The album garnered enormous praise from the press, and the two-hour long album stream was premiered by NPR. “The Glowing Man” (2017) (also triple vinyl) was the last studio release by this incarnation of SWANS. 2019’s “Leaving Meaning” saw Gira return to working with a fluid supporting cast of musicians once again, which continued with 2023’s acclaimed album “The Beggar”.