Michael Gira

Swans return with Birthing, the latest album developed over the course of a yearlong 2023–2024 tour. Birthing is released via Mute and Young God Records.

As has been the case for the past four decades, Michael Gira is doing something unconventional. Following up their trilogy of punishing (two hours long, each of ’em), entrancing, and very weird records over the course of just four years, Swans appears to be returning, albeit in a new iteration. Young God Records has shared details on their site of the campaign to fund Gira’s new album, spearheaded by a record of acoustic tracks titled What Is This?, the foundation of what will later become the band’s proper new record. Gira also notes that the band’s new lineup will include past members of the band and other Gira project Angels of Light (including Bill Rieflin, currently a member of King Crimson), as well as Swedish songwriter, organist, and honorary member of the Gira universe Anna von Hausswolff. Gira notes that the new record “won’t be expressed in a musical style similar to the chapter of Swans that recently concluded,” concluding with a Lynchian quip to “Follow the uncertainty, make that the thing.”