Swans to Release NEWLY SENTIENT BEING via Young God Records
The live recording captures the band's final 'big sound' performance at a landmark concert.
Swans are to release NEWLY SENTIENT BEING on October 2 via Young God Records, a live recording that captures what the band has described as its final performance in the large-scale format the group has operated under in recent years.
NEWLY SENTIENT BEING is an audio and video collection that captures the band's final 'Big Sound' performance, recorded on Nov. 28, 2025, in Berlin. The collection will be available as a 4LP+DVD set with poster, a 2CD+DVD with fold out booklet, a limited edition box set exclusive to the Young God Records webstore, and digitally. The collection is available for pre-order now at https://younggodrecords.com/products/newly-sentient-being.
NEWLY SENTIENT BEING features recordings of Swans' final concert of an era that ran from 2010-2025 and is the apotheosis of 15 years of cosmic sonic expressionism, alternately heavenly and debased, visceral and transcendent. Recorded in Berlin, it features two and a half hours of music, including a wealth of new material never before recorded, and a DVD of the performance directed by Marco Porsia and Peter Harton.
The lineup for the recording is Michael Gira, Kristof Hahn, Dana Schechter, Larry Mullins, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica, and Norman Westberg.
Michael Gira said: 'In 2010 I made the decision to reconvene my band, Swans, which I had, years earlier, killed out of frustration, disappointment and exhaustion. Now, I saw a light, a way forward for the music, and I decided to pursue it. Neither I, nor my collaborators in sound had any idea how things would eventually unfold, but it felt necessary and right, so we followed the music where it led. Turns out there was and is an audience for our music, which is often less than accessible in the popular sense of the term, but proved to be nevertheless compelling to a growing cadre of folks seeking the kind of unique experience we have offered.'
'I believe we reached some pretty tremendous highs along the way, where the music became a raging, sentient autonomous beast that played us (and the audience/listener), rather than the reverse. That was the goal all along, to lose ourselves in the swirl. It took a lot out of us, physically and psychically to reach the highest plateaus, but once there, there was nothing on earth like it, and I'm glad we did it. Now this phase is finished. There's nowhere else to take it, but we seem to have ended on a particularly high note with our final tour of this (now passing) Swans era, and I believe these current recordings convey the sensations and experience of the unique world we forged. For the next phase, I'm moving Swans into something with a decidedly more humble, and intimate musical palette, but here now I offer my praise to the righteous group of humans, the musicians that made our final foray into the sonic ether a reality: Norman Westberg, Dana Schechter, Phil Puleo, Larry Mullins, Kristof Hahn, Christopher Pravdica, and I was in there flailing somewhere too.'
NEWLY SENTIENT BEING TRACK LISTING
The End of Forgetting
The Merge
Paradise is Mine
Newly Sentient Being
The End of Regretting
Photo credit: Mac Janas
ABOUT SWANS
Michael Gira founded the groundbreaking New York City band Swans in 1982. Initially notorious for their relentless, brutal, high-volume onslaughts of sound, the extreme, abject imagery of Gira's lyrics and his thundering vocals, Swans would undergo a series of startling transformations over the next 15 years. Following the punishing Filth and Cop albums, the ensemble would venture into harshly mechanical proto-industrial rock of their Greed period, then both haunted atmospheric idylls and martial stomps on 1987's landmark Children of God double album. They'd conjure gentler acoustic-based meditations on The Burning World (1989), then after relocating to Atlanta grand, melody-dense sonic whirlwinds of the White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991) and Love of Life (1993) era, becoming more dissonant and sharp-edged with The Great Annihilator (1994). Finally, the ultimate statement of that epoch of Swans, Soundtracks For The Blind (1996), incorporated all of these elements across well over two hours of music. At this point, Gira called it quits after 15 years of non-stop recording and touring, disbanding the group. For the next 13 years, he'd make a long series of acclaimed albums and perform live extensively with a revolving roster of musicians under the name Angels Of Light. Gira also discovered, produced and released albums by other musicians through his label Young God Records. He cultivated such talents as Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family among others, the original figures of the late '00s avant-folk movement.
In 2010, he reactivated Swans, releasing the studio album My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky to ecstatic critical response and touring the world for the better part of a year. The Seer, a triple album studio set, came out in 2012 and was celebrated by another lengthy world tour eliciting more media praise and album sales that landed The Seer on Billboard's Top 200. Swans' next release, To Be Kind (another triple vinyl) debuted at #36 on Billboard's Top 200 Sales Chart and #5 on their Independent Sales Chart. The group sold out 47 concert dates in their subsequent touring including selling out two-night stands in cities including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Paris, as well as single shows in London, Berlin and Rome. The album garnered enormous praise from the press, and the two-hour long album stream was premiered by NPR. The Glowing Man (2017) (also triple vinyl) was the last studio release by this incarnation of Swans. 2019's Leaving Meaning, saw Gira return to working with a fluid supporting cast of musicians once again, which continued with 2023's acclaimed album, The Beggar. Swans seventeenth studio album, Birthing (2025), was announced as the final 'Big Sound' recording, closing a 15-year chapter that began in 2010. Gira has announced the next phase will be a 'more humble, and intimate musical palette.'
Photo Credit: Mac Janas
