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Swans
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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 will be released on triple vinyl (in a brown trim-fold chipboard sleeve) and double CD (in a brown chipboard digi-pack). 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'.Birthing is the seventeenth studio album from Swans.