Birthing, by SWANS

Birthing

by SWANS

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Deathbylistening This album changed my life. For some reason it made me realize I could move past my problems and finally make the art I want to. The immense sonic textures made me feel like I was underwater, but it somehow wasn't terrifying at all, I felt at peace with my life. Amazing album from Swans and one of my favorite purchases ever. Favorite track: Birthing.

apollokoraidon the fact that these guys are in the late part of their life yet still putting out masterpieces is insane Favorite track: (Rope) Away.

BobandoCommando It's not often I feel like I can casually put on albums that consist LARGELY of 20+ minute songs, but when that urge is ready and you can absorb these compositions, the shit hits you like a truck from heaven. Favorite track: I Am a Tower.

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$11.99 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Birthing 3LP includes Bonus DVD, signed insert and poster.

Copies also available from the YGR official store or Mute in the UK.
mute.ffm.to/swans-birthing

Tracklisting:

Side A
1. The Healers

Side B
1. I Am a Tower

Side C
1. Birthing

Side D
1. Red Yellow
2. Guardian Spirit

Side E
1. The Merge

Side F
1. Rope: Instrumental
2. Away

BONUS DVD included with initial pressing:

1. M. Gira/I Wonder if I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me to Sing (Live Solo 2022)
2. Swans/(Rope) The Beggar (Live 2024)

Includes unlimited streaming of Birthing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
... more

ships out within 7 days

Purchasable with gift card

$49.50 USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Birthing 2CD includes Bonus DVD and signed insert.

Copies also available from the YGR official store or Mute in the UK.
mute.ffm.to/swans-birthing

Tracklisting:

CD1:

1. The Healers
2. I Am a Tower
3. Birthing

CD2:

1. Red Yellow
2. Guardian Spirit
3. The Merge
4. Rope: Instrumental
5. Away

BONUS DVD included with initial pressing:

1. M. Gira/I Wonder if I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me to Sing (Live Solo 2022)
2. Swans/(Rope) The Beggar (Live 2024)

Includes unlimited streaming of Birthing via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Download available in 16-bit/44.1kHz.
... more

ships out within 7 days

Purchasable with gift card

$21 USD or more

1.	The Healers 21:41
2.	I Am a Tower 19:17
3.	Birthing 22:20
4.	Red Yellow 06:51	buy track
5.	Guardian Spirit 10:57
6.	The Merge 15:19
7.	(Rope) Away 19:10

about

SWANS • BIRTHING • YG68

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 digipack), 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.

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released May 30, 2025

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SWANS New York, New York

Swans are an experimental rock band formed in 1982 by Michael Gira. Initially part of the no wave scene, Swans have, through various iterations, contributed to the development of noise rock, post-punk, industrial, post-rock and more.

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Birthing

by SWANS

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Streaming + Download

$11.99 USD or more

Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

$49.50 USD or more

Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

$21 USD or more