out now: Swans - Birthing [Young God Records | Mute]

Artist:
Swans

Title:
Birthing

Label:
Young God Records | Mute

Cat#:
YG68 | STUMM516

Release Date:
30th May 2025

Format:
CD+DVD, vinyl+DVD, download & streaming

Tracklist:
CD1-01.
The Healers

CD1-02.
I Am A Tower

CD1-03.
Birthing

CD2-01.
Red Yellow

CD2-02.
Guardian Spirit

CD2-03.
The Merge

CD2-04.
Rope

CD2-05.
Away

Press Info:
SWANS have announced details of their seventeenth studio album, Birthing, due for release on Mute / Young God Records (N America) on 30 May 2025. Birthing will be released 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, plus Christopher Nicholson’s documentary from Michael Gira’s solo tour in 2022 entitled ‘I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me To Sing’.

“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, 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

Snippets:

Full Track Streaming:
“I Am a Tower”