Swans announce 16th album ‘The Beggar’ and 2023 world tour
Swans announce their sixteenth studio album, “The Beggar”, set for release on 23 June 2023 via Mute / Young God Records. The band also reveals an extensive 2023 tour across the UK, Europe, and North America.
“The Beggar” will be available on double vinyl in a brown chipboard sleeve, double CD in a brown chipboard digi-pack, and digitally. A download card offers access to an additional 44 minutes of music, also included on the album’s CD version.
Recorded and mixed at Candy Bomber Studio in Berlin, “The Beggar” was engineered by Ingo Krauss, mastered by Doug Henderson, and written and produced by Michael Gira. It features contributions from current and former Swans members, members of Angels of Light, and guest artist Ben Frost.
Michael Gira shares his experience of writing the album during the pandemic and forced isolation, expressing optimism and hope for the future: “After numerous pandemic-induced cancellations of tours for the previous Swans album leaving meaning, and an apparent bottomless pit of waiting, waiting, waiting, and the strange disorientation that came with this sudden but interminable forced isolation I decided it was time to write songs for a new Swans album and forget about everything else. They came relatively easily, always informed by the suspicion that these could be my last. When I finally was able to travel, songs in hand, to Berlin to work with my friends recording this record, the feeling was akin to the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the film changes from Black and White to Color. Now I’m feeling quite optimistic. My favourite color is pink. I hope you enjoy the album.”
Primary contributors to “The Beggar” include Michael Gira (vocals, words, acoustic guitar, production), Kristof Hahn (lap steel, various guitars, vocals), Larry Mullins (drums, vibes, orchestral percussion, Mellotron, various keyboards, backing vocals), Dana Schechter (bass guitar, lap steel, keyboards, vocals, piano), Christopher Pravdica (bass guitar, sounds, keyboards, vocals), Phil Puleo (drums, percussion, vocals, piano, exotic wind instruments), and Ben Frost (guitar, synthesizers, sound manipulations). Jennifer Gira, Lucy Kruger, and Laura Carbone provide backing vocals.
Listen to “Paradise Is Mine”.
About Swans
Michael Gira founded Swans in NYC in 1982 and underwent multiple transformations over the years. The band ventured into various styles and genres, culminating in “Soundtracks For The Blind” (1996) before disbanding. Gira then worked on Angels Of Light and his label Young God Records, discovering and producing acts like Devendra Banhart and Akron/Family.
Swans was reactivated in 2010, releasing the album “My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky” and touring worldwide. That album was followed by “The Seer” (2012), “To Be Kind” (2014) and “The Glowing Man” (2017).
Swans’ music style can be described as experimental, encompassing a wide range of genres over their career. Their early work was characterized by brutal, high-volume onslaughts of sound, often described as no wave or noise rock. Over the years, they have ventured into harshly mechanical proto-industrial rock, atmospheric idylls, martial stomps, acoustic-based meditations, grand melody-dense sonic whirlwinds, and dissonant sharp-edged compositions. This eclectic approach has led to their music being associated with post-rock, experimental rock, and avant-garde genres.
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