NEWS
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November 2,3,4 final shows together, at Warsaw, in Brooklyn
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On November 2,3,4 the heroic (to us, anyway!) line up of Swans, comprised of Norman Westberg, Michael Gira, Christoph Hahn, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica, Paul Wallfisch, and Thor Harris (Thor will be rejoining us for a few songs) will play our final shows together, at Warsaw, in Brooklyn. That's it. No more performances from this group, ever. Our love for each other surpasses all spiritual, aesthetic, and legal boundaries. It's been about 8 years since we first broke bread and incessantly tested each others patience together in a damp Brooklyn basement, but enough is enough. Following this, I will be rethinking Swans completely. I will continue to make music using the name Swans, with a revolving cast of contributors (and with their kind permission, the above sonic titans will also participate, as their schedules, stomachs, and whimsy allow), but as a fixed group, this, the longest consistent line up of Swans, will be finished. As of November 4 we will have thoroughly devoured each others faces, and little flesh will remain clinging to our brittle bones. And yes, we will be performing these last 3 acts of psychic pugilism wearing pink tutus and black facial polka dots... We will be......
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NEWSLETTER FROM MICHAEL GIRA / SWANS / YOUNG GOD RECORDS MAY 2017
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Hi There! This newsletter is going out exclusively to people that have signed up to our mailing list. As you know, these newsletters are infrequent. We certainly don’t want to intrude, so if you no longer wish to receive news from us please take steps to remove yourself from our list. Here’s what’s going on in the world of Swans: The Live2XCD Deliquescence is finally finished and out and is available now at younggodrecords.com and at live shows. This album documents (rather expertly, if I may say so) the final Swans tour for this configuration of the band. It includes a few new pieces that have not, and never will be, recorded elsewhere. They were written especially for this tour. It was recorded and mixed during the current tour and serves as an excellent archival document of this enterprise, now 7 years running (and soon to cease). It is, I believe, quite fetchingly packaged, and each copy is signed by me. You can read more about it here. (https://younggodrecords.com/products/deliquescence) The 1995 Swans album The Great Annihilator has been lovingly re-mastered and is now available on vinyl for the first time in decades. It is also available as a 2XCD and......
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SWANS - ANNOUNCE REMASTERED REISSUE OF THE GREAT ANNIHILATOR & UPDATED UK TOUR DATES IN MAY
() - Michael Gira, SWANS, young god
"Swans live is performance art of the highest order" - LA Music "…a mighty devotional racket" - The Scotsman "...two and half hours of shamanic magic that uplifted and cleansed the audience" – Trebuchet SWANS have announced a remastered reissue of their ninth studio album, The Great Annihilator, out on 28 April 2017 on Mute / Young God Records (N America) plus further dates for their spring UK tour which now begins in Glasgow on 18 May and finishes with a show at London’s historic Roundhouse on 27 May and an appearance at Transformer festival in Manchester on 28 May. The Great Annihilator, originally released in 1995 and described at the time as “…a majestic symphony of haunting melodies and shifting moods” [SF Bay Guardian], will be released on double vinyl – the album’s first release on vinyl for decades - and as a 2CD set. Both the vinyl (in the form of a download code) and CD will feature Drainland, Michael Gira’s debut solo album recorded at the same time as The Great Annihilator. The album was entirely remastered by Doug Henderson, but only after Bill Rieflin (“honorary Swan forever”) recently tracked down DATs and cassettes containing unmastered mixes from......
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A NOTE FROM MICHAEL GIRA OF SWANS:
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“In 2009 when I made the decision to restart my musical group, Swans, I had no idea where it would lead. I knew that if I took the road of mining the past or revisiting the catalog, that it would be fruitless and stultifying. After much thought about how to make this an adventure that would instead lead the music forward into unexpected terrain, I chose the five people with whom to work that I believed would most ably provide a sense of surprise, and even uncertainty, while simultaneously embodying the strength and confidence to ride the river of intention that flows from the heart of the sound wherever it would lead us - and what’s the intention? LOVE! And so finally this LOVE has now led us, with the release of the new and final recording from this configuration of Swans, The Glowing Man, through four albums (three of which contain more complexity, nuance and scope than I would have ever dreamed possible), several live releases, various fundraiser projects, countless and seemingly endless tours and rehearsals, and a generally exhausting regimen that has left us stunned but still invigorated and thrilled to see this thing through to its conclusion.......
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LIVE REPORT: Swans (The Quietus)
() - M. Gira, Michael Gira, Quietus, SWANS, young god
Toby Cook gets "sucked down the gloriously uncomfortable rabbit hole once again" as he witnesses two and a half hours of both intensity and restraint at the Roundhouse in London It starts with no more than a murmur. A low, soft hiss, an almost imperceptible resonance that, whilst muted and hushed, seems to charge the very air around you – the first few, almost unnoticed drops of rain and the soft bristle of static that mutes the breeze and gently prickles your skin; the kind of deceptive change in atmosphere and infinitely building, barely tangible sense of complete physical unease that tells you that somewhere, miles and miles out to sea, it's starting to change course, the storm is rolling in – it's coming straight at you and there's nothing you can do about it. You think, you fear, that you know what's about to arrive; you brace, you steady yourself, and you wait for the full, righteous power of the tempest to come crashing into you and to consume you totally. That's how it starts: Not with a bang but with a drone, barely audible at first, but deeply unsettling nonetheless, as Swans' perpetually shirt-adverse percussionist Thor Harris takes......