Swans have announced their 17th studio album ‘Birthing’ – you can listen to new single ‘I Am A Tower’ below.
The New York City experimental rock band are due to release the follow-up to 2023’s ‘The Beggar’ on May 30 via Mute/Young God. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.
In a statement, frontman Michael Gira shared some details about how the forthcoming LP came to be, and told fans that the project would mark the end of Swans’ current incarnation.
“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,” he explained. “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.”
Gira went on to say that he was “blessed to have such a stellar group of musicians to work with live, 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”.
He continued: “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.”
To preview the album, Swans have shared a sprawling and atmospheric single called ‘I Am A Tower’ – which clocks in at over 19 minutes long. You can watch the official lyric video above.
Swans’ upcoming live tour dates in support of ‘Birthday’ are set to follow later, with Gira already scheduled to play some solo shows in Europe this spring.
Fans will be able to purchase the new record on triple vinyl (in a brown chipboard sleeve), double CD (in a brown chipboard digi-pack) 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 US tour, as well as Christopher Nicholson’s documentary from Gira’s solo tour in 2022, titled I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me To Sing.
‘Birthing’ was produced by Gira, and recorded at Soundfabrik Berlin with recording engineer Ingo Krauss, assisted by Kiron Gaudi. The collection was mixed at Candy Bomber Studio, Berlin by Ingo Krauss, and mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose, Berlin.
The tracklist for Swans’ ‘Birthing’ is:
‘The Healers’
‘I Am A Tower’
‘Birthing’
‘Red Yellow’
‘Guardian Spirit’
‘The Merge’
‘Rope’
‘Away’