Swans has announced the upcoming release of Birthing, due on May 30 via Mute / Young God Records. It is the 17th studio album from the long-running Michael Gira-led project and will be followed by a tour -- the last of this iteration of the band. The album will be released on triple vinyl, double CD, and digitally, being packaged with a bonus DVD, Swans Live 2024 (Rope) The Beggar and I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me To Sing, Christopher Nicholson’s documentary from Michael Gira’s solo tour in 2022.
Gira gives deeper insight:
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 VINYL/CD TRACKLIST:
The Healers
I Am a Tower
Birthing
Red Yellow
Guardian Spirit
The Merge
Rope
Away
SWANS BIRTHING DIGITAL TRACKLIST:
The Healers
I Am a Tower
Birthing
Red Yellow
Guardian Spirit
The Merge
(Rope) Away
MICHAEL GIRA & KRISTOF HAHN LIVE
9 April – Prague (CZ), Meet Factory
10 April – Linz (AT), Grüner Anker
12 April – Trieste (IT), Teatrro Miela
13 April – Milan (IT), Spazio Teatro 89
15 April – Brussels (BE), Ancient Belgique
17 April – London (UK), EartH
18 April – Paris (FR), Cafe de la Danse
20 April – Tilburg (NL), Roadburn Festival
21 April – Cologne (DE), Helios 37
23 April – Leipzig (DE), Hellandskirche
25 April – Warsaw (PL), Palladium
27 April – Berlin (DE), Heimathafen
