Birthing
by Swans
- Type: Album
- Released: May 30, 2025
- Label: Mute, Young God
- Country: United States
- Length: 1:55:35
- Community rating: 4.22/5 from 49 ratings
Artists on this release: Larry Mullins, Kristof Hahn, Christopher Pravdica, Dana Schechter, Norman Westberg, Phil Puleo, Michael Gira
Album Notes & Community Reviews
'Birthing' serves as a culmination of Swans' post-reformation explorations into all-consuming, monolithic sound worlds, with compositions developed on tour before being intricately orchestrated in the studio. The album's dense, layered soundscapes are built upon a vast array of instrumentation, from multiple lap steel guitars and synthesizers to hammered dulcimers and the Taishōgoto, creating a sonic palette that mirrors frontman Michael Gira's thematic focus on dualities like transcendence and self-erasure. Gira has framed the album as the definitive conclusion to this maximalist era of the band, preceding a deliberate shift toward a more pared-down and minimalist future for the project.
Genres
Descriptors: avant-garde, dissonant, long-form, ritualistic, droning, experimental, repetitive, ambient, noisy
Tracklist
- The Healers (21:41)
- I Am a Tower (19:17)
- Birthing (22:20)
- Red Yellow (06:51)
- Guardian Spirit (10:57)
- The Merge (15:19)
- (Rope) Away (19:10)
Credits
- Michael Gira - vocals, acoustic guitar, producer, art direction, design
- Phil Puleo - drums, hammered dulcimer, flute, melodica, percussion, layout
- Kristof Hahn - lap steel guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, loops, backing vocals
- Dana Schechter - lap steel guitar, bass guitar, loops
- Christopher Pravdica - bass guitar, taishōgoto, loops, sound effects, keyboards
- Larry Mullins - mellotron, keyboards, piano, synthesizer, drums, vibraphone, percussion, backing vocals
- Norman Westberg - electric guitar, loops
- Jennifer Gira - guest, backing vocals
- Laura Carbone - guest, backing vocals
- Lucy Kruger - guest, backing vocals
- Andreas Dormann - guest, soprano saxophone
- Little Mikey - guest, backing vocals
- Timothy Wyskida - drums on "the merge"
- Doug Henderson - mastering
- Ingo Krauss - recording, mixing
- Kiron Gaudi - engineering assistance