Swans return with ‘Birthing’, the latest album, developed over the course of a yearlong 2023-2024 tour. ‘Birthing’ is released via Mute and Young God Records. The initial pressings of the deluxe vinyl and CD include a bonus DVD featuring ‘Swans Live 2024 (Rope) “The Beggar’, a concert film by Marco Porsia documenting the band’s most recent US tour. The DVD also includes ‘I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me to Sing’, a documentary by Christopher Nicholson following Michael Gira’s 2022 solo tour.
Refined through relentless improvisation and live performance, as well as newly composed studio pieces, ‘Birthing’ is a testament to Michael Gira’s uncompromising sonic vision. Beginning as skeletal acoustic compositions, the songs were gradually expanded and transformed in the studio with long time live members and collaborators.
“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.” – Michael Gira / Swans
The Fat Angel Sings 