Birthing

SWANS • BIRTHING • YG68 --INSERT SIGNED BY M.GIRA-- ***INITIAL PRESSING COMES WITH BONUS DVD*** Unsigned copies available via Mute in the UK.  Listen to "I Am a Tower":  Listen to "The Healers": SWANS announce their seventeenth studio album, Birthing, due for release  on May 30, 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 3LP and 2CD 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 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    SWANS BIRTHING ALBUM CONTRIBUTORS: Michael Gira – acoustic guitar, voice, producer; Phil Puleo – drums, hammer dulcimer, flute, melodica, percussion; Kristof Hahn – lap steel guitar, electric and acoustic guitars, loops, backing vocals; Dana Schechter – lap steel guitar, bass guitar, loops; Christopher Pravdica – bass guitar, Taishogoto, loops, sounds, keyboards; Larry Mullins – Mellotron, keyboards, piano, synthesizer, drums, vibraphone, percussion, backing vocals; Norman Westberg – electric guitar, loops... Guest Musicians: Jennifer Gira – backing vocals, cameo vocals; Laura Carbone and Lucy Kruger – backing vocals; Andreas Dormann – soprano saxophone; Timothy Wyskida – drums on The Merge; Little Mikey – cameo vocals.  Birthing was produced by Michael Gira. Recorded at Soundfabrik Berlin, recording engineer Ingo Krauss, assisted by Kiron Gaudi, and mixed at Candy Bomber Studio, Berlin by Ingo Krauss. Mastered by Doug Henderson at Micro-Moose, Berlin.   Birthing 2CD+Bonus DVD tracklisting: CD1: The Healers I Am a Tower Birthing CD2: Red Yellow Guardian Spirit The Merge Rope: Instrumental Away BONUS DVD included with initial pressing: M. Gira/I Wonder if I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me to Sing (Live Solo 2022) Swans/(Rope) The Beggar (Live 2024) Birthing 3LP+ Bonus DVD tracklisting: Side A The Healers Side B I Am a Tower Side C Birthing Side D Red Yellow Guardian Spirit Side E The Merge Side F Rope: Instrumental Away BONUS DVD included with initial pressing: M. Gira/I Wonder if I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me to Sing (Live Solo 2022) Swans/(Rope) The Beggar (Live 2024)   DVD Trailer for M. Gira/"I Wonder if I'm Singing What You're Thinking Me to Sing (Live Solo 2022)": DVD Trailer for Swans/"(Rope) The Beggar(Live 2024)": Cover Artwork: CD Digipack: CD Booklet Front: CD Booklet Back: Vinyl Packaging: 18"x24" Vinyl Poster: Vinyl Insert Front: Vinyl Insert Back: DVD: Swans 2025: Schechter, Puleo, Hahn, Westberg, Pravdica, Mullins, Gira: