Goodbye to this stellar version of Swans. “Newly Sentient Being” features superb recordings of Swans’ final concert of the “Big Sound” era, the apotheosis of 15 years of cosmic sonic expressionism, alternately heavenly and debased, visceral and transcendent. Recorded in November. 2025, in Berlin. With more than two hours of music, it includes a wealth of new material never recorded elsewhere and a DVD of the performance.
Up there with the best of Swans’ legendary live records, they close this chapter with love and unbridled passion. “This phase is finished,” leader and founder Michael Gira says. “There’s nowhere else to take it, but we seem to have ended on a particularly high note with our final tour of this (now passing) Swans era, and I believe these current recordings convey the sensations and experience of the unique world we forged. For the next phase, I’m moving Swans into something with a decidedly more humble and intimate musical palette, but here now I offer my praise to the righteous group of humans, the musicians that made our final foray into the sonic ether a reality: Norman Westberg, Dana Schechter, Phil Puleo, Larry Mullins, Kristof Hahn, Christopher Pravdica… and I was in there flailing somewhere too.
4LP Box Set with 2CD + DVD and poster included. Also available on 4LP Gatefold + DVD 2CD + DVD and digitally.
