Following a hugely successful year of touring across the states and European festival appearances in support of their 2010 album My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, Swans have announced works are already well underway for their followup, some of which was showcased at their recent shows and has been a work in progress throughout the tour. “Fans who have seen the recent Swans show will be familiar with some of the new material, which has been developing throughout the tour,” reads a statement issued today. “They’ll also be aware that a few of the songs are now over 30 minutes in length, making their live set a comfortable 2 ½ hours long. As it turns out, the new album will likely approach that length as well.” Swans are set to play at ATP’s I’ll Be Your Mirror festival in London which is curated by Portishead this weekend at Alexandra Palace.
The first session of recordings has already been completed and “recordings will resume at Marcata in early October, when Swans conclude their year-plus World Tour. The album will be released in early 2012.” explains the press statement. The album is as of yet untitled, but will be produced by main-man Michael Gira and is set to be released through Young God Records. To help with costs of the new album, a collection of live records from their recent batch of dates is going to be released as a very limited, hand made version available through the Young Gods website.
Here is a video of Swans performing one of their classic tracks ‘Sex, God, Sex’ at the Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Holland which was reviewed in Zero Tolerance magazine.
