FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SWANS’ NEW ALBUM, BIRTHING, OUT NOW

VIA YOUNG GOD RECORDS/MUTE

LISTEN HERE: https://mute.ffm.to/swans-birthing

NORTH AMERICAN TOUR BEGINS SEPTEMBER 4

“The Healers” lyric video

May 30, 2025 – Swans’ seventeenth studio album, Birthing, is out now via Young God Records/Mute. A lyric video for “The Healers” (https://youtu.be/Yq_oxCj4gM8) arrives alongside the album.

“The material contained in this album was largely developed over the course of a

yearlong Swans tour, during 2023-2024,” shares Michael Gira, “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.”

Birthing is available now: https://mute.ffm.to/swans-birthing. Formats include triple vinyl (in a brown chipboard sleeve), 2CD (in a brown chipboard digipak), and digital. Initial pressings of the triple vinyl and CD editions include a bonus DVD featuring “Swans Live 2024 (Rope) The Beggar,” a concert film directed by Marco Porsia from

the last Swans U.S. tour, plus Christopher Nicholson’s documentary from Gira’s

2022 solo tour: “I Wonder If I’m Singing What You’re Thinking Me To Sing.”

Swans have announced their final tour dates featuring the expansive version of Swans (Michael Gira, Kristof Jahn, Dana Schechter, Larry Mullins, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica, and Norman Westerberg).

Tickets for all shows are on-sale now. Little Annie and Paul Wallfisch open on all

North American dates, Jessica Moss supports on all European shows. Ticketing

links are available via the Young God Records website (younggodrecords.com).

North American tour dates:

September 4 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer

September 5 Washington, DC The Howard Theatre

September 6 Norfolk, VA The NorVa

September 9 Dallas, TX Granada Theater

September 10 Austin, TX Mohawk Austin

September 12 Albuquerque, NM Sunshine Theater

September 13 Tucson, AZ The Rialto Theatre

September 15 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room

September 16 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room

September 17 Los Angeles, CA Lodge Room

September 20 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall

September 21 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall

September 23 Seattle, WA The Neptune Theatre

September 24 Portland, OR Revolution Hall

September 27 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater

September 28 Omaha, NE Waiting Room Showroom

September 30 Chicago, IL Cabaret Metro

October 1 Detroit, MI The Magic Bag

October 3 Toronto, ON Phoenix Concert Theatre

October 4 Montreal, QC Théâtre National

October 6 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club

October 7 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel

European tour dates:

October 23 Leipzig, DE Haus Leipzig

October 24 Neunkirchen, DE Neue Geblassehalle

October 26 Munich, DE Technikum

October 28 Prague, CZ Archa+

October 29 Graz, AT Halle Detroit

October 31 Ljubljana, SI Kino Siska

November 1 Zagreb, HR Boogaloo

November 3 Ferrara, IT Teatro Comunale

November 4 Milan, IT Auditorium di Milano

November 6 Paris, FR Trabendo

November 7 Leeds, UK Project House

November 9 London, UK Electric Brixton

November 10 London, UK Electric Brixton

November 11 London, UK Electric Brixton

November 14 Leiden, NL Nobel

November 15 Nijmegen, NL Doomroosje

November 17 Copenhagen, DK VEGA Store

November 19 Oslo, NO Vulkan Arena

November 20 Stockholm, SE Slaktkyrkan

November 22 Tallin, EE Paavli Kultuurivabrik

November 24 Vilnius, LT Kablys

November 25 Warsaw, PL Stodola

November 27 Berlin, DE Festaal Kreuzberg

November 28 Berlin, DE Festaal Kreuzberg

Birthing album cover

Photo credit: Josef Puleo

Michael Gira founded Swans in 1982. Initially known for their brutal, high-volume onslaughts of sound and the extreme, abject imagery of Gira’s lyrics and his thundering vocals, Swans underwent a series of startling transformations over the next 15 years. After early punishing albums like Filth and Cop, they explored proto-industrial rock with Greed, atmospheric and martial elements on Children of God (1987), acoustic meditations on The Burning World (1989), and grand, melody-dense sonic whirlwinds with White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991) and Love of Life (1993), before becoming more dissonant and sharp-edged with The Great Annihilator (1994). Finally, the ultimate statement of that epoch of Swans, Soundtracks for the Blind, combined all of these elements across well over two hours of music. Gira disbanded the group, shifting focus to Angels of Light and his Young God Records label, fostering artists like Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family. In 2010, he revived Swans with My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky to ecstatic critical response followed by The Seer (2012) and To Be Kind (2014), with both earning critical and commercial success, leading to sold-out tours and multiple Billboard chart placements. The Glowing Man (2017) marked the end of that Swans incarnation, with Leaving Meaning (2019), The Beggar (2023), and Birthing (2025) continuing Gira’s work with an evolving lineup.

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