Dozens of people came and went through the 15 years of Swans existence.
These are the people that spring immediately to mind: Michael Gira, Norman
Westberg, Roli Mossiman, Harry Crosby, Sue Hanel, Jonathan Kane, Algis
Kizys, Jarboe, Ted Parsons, Larry Mullins, Vudi, Joe Goldring, Ronaldo
Gonzales, Vinnie Signorelli, Christoph Hahn, Bill Rieflin, Bill Bronson,
Phil Puleo, Anton Fier, Jenny Wade, Clinton Steele...and more...
People who have contributed to Angels of Light:
Michael Gira, Christoph Hahn, Thor Harris, Devendra Banhart, Phil Puleo,
Larry Mullins, Dana Schechter, Birgit "Cassis" Staudt, Bill Rieflin, Steve
Moses, Bliss Blood, Daria, Pat Fondiller, The Akron/Family Boyz ( Seth
Olinsky, Dana Janssen, Miles Seaton, Ryan Vanderhoof ), Siobhan Duffy,
Larkin Grimm, Pat Fondiller, Kid Congo Powers, Jerome O'Brien, Julia Kent,
Paul Cantelon, David Garland, Eszter Balint, and dozens more I guess....
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Michael Gira (Angels Of Light / Swans) short bio (extensive info at younggodrecords.com):
Michael Gira founded the seminal NYC band Swans in 1982. Quickly infamous for their punishing, brutal and repetitive onslaughts of sound, extreme volume levels, and the self-abusing, abject shouts and growls of Gira's sloganeering vocals, Swans gradually transformed over 15 years, ultimately venturing into harsh mechanical proto-industrial rock, to sprawling shifts of texture and perspective (see the bucolic atmospheric folk idles and martial stomps of their much heralded Children of God double LP from 1987), to gentle acoustic-based songs, and finally on to their ultimate statement, Soundtracks For The Blind (1997) which somehow incorporated all of these elements at once, across well over 2 hours of music in one album. At this point, Gira called it quits after 15 years of relentless touring and productivity, and disbanded Swans. Since 1999 Gira has released his music under the name Angels Of Light. He writes the songs for Angels Of Light on acoustic guitar and orchestrates them using a shifting cadre of musicians, employing a wide variety of instrumentation such as strings, wind, brass, electric guitars, electronics and choral vocals. The songs are often eccentric and extreme, in keeping with Gira's love of soundtrack music. Though nominally more traditional than Swans, Angels Of Light is often just as hard hitting through different means. The most recent album by Angels Of Light is We Are Him. Though Angels Of Light recordings are often elaborately orchestrated, Gira has recently chosen to tour exclusively solo, using acoustic guitar and voice. The performances are raw, to the point, and emotionally powerful. When not recording, writing music, or touring, Gira spends his time producing and releasing music through his label Young God Records. He's been responsible of late for such notable talents as Devendra Banhart, Lisa Germano, Akron/Family, Fire On Fire, and most recently, Larkin Grimm. In May 2009 Young God released the YGR debut “The Glass Bead Game” by the acclaimed composer/guitarist James Blackshaw.
TIME OUT NY/ CONCERT PREVIEW (excerpt) 2008, by Jordan Mamone:
" Armed with only an acoustic guitar and a commanding baritone, Michael Gira
could make mincemeat out of the most “extreme” metal and punk bands. His
heavy-handed strumming and clear, virile voice—not to mention his impeccable, neatly pressed appearance—lend ample gravitas to even his prettiest folk ballads. (Lyrics like “When you open your mouth you’re too stupid to scream” will seduce misanthropes who dig Thomas Bernhard novels rather than pixies who worship Joanna Newsom CDs.)...’ It’s heartening to see that Gira, the erstwhile East Village confrontationist, now in his early fifties and living upstate, has reached one more peak in his long, unpredictable career. "
TIME OUT LONDON / CONCERT PREVIEW 2007, by Sophie Harris
"No-one – but no-one – does menace like Michael Gira. Not Liars, not Black Dice, not Selfish Cunt or indeed any of today's confrontational young bucks. None of the bands that Gira has influenced, in his thirty-odd (and they are odd) years making music comes close to the darkness that bubbles so deliciously through his music. But then, Gira's life story so far is nothing short of extraordinary.
A 'difficult' child (born to difficult parents), he ran away from home at 14, ended up at a kibbutz in Israel, selling drugs and his own blood on the streets, in jail, and then working in a copper mine. His father eventually tracked him down through Interpol, and Gira was shipped back to California to go to high school. He dropped out, and by the time he arrived in New York in '81, Gira describes himself as 'boiling over with non-specific rage'.
Enter then, Swans, legendarily the Loudest Band Ever. To this day, rock nerds' faces light up as they remember the inter-crowd injury/vomiting/deafness that characterised the art rockers' live shows; Gira would be physically pummelled by the drone, hurling himself at the ground repeatedly, knocking out teeth in the process (it rather puts Richie Manic's '4 Real' to shame).
But musically, there's so much more to Gira than these shock-horror stories. Perhaps what is most surprising is that in his years as Angels Of Light, Gira has produced a series of mesmerically beautiful records, often boasting a shimmering delicacy. As a child, before all the craziness happened, Gira used to listen to Disney and Burle Ives records, and this world of fantasy and fairytale saturates his latest album 'We Are Him' (it's notable too, that Gira and his wife Siobhan Duffy 'discovered' Devendra Banhart and produced his first, gnarly folk records on Gira's Young God label, now also home to Akron/Family).
A huge, handsome man, Gira now sports immaculate suits, braces, and a Stetson onstage, booming out songs with the assuredness of an old-fashioned preacher. The darkness Gira deals in today is far subtler than those early days – just don't doubt for a second that you'll be left breathless."
UPDATED JUNE 2007: Around 1977 or so, I quit art school (Otis Art
Institute) in Los Angeles and started NO Magazine. I decided the art world
was not for me, and punk music, which was exploding at the time, just seemed
more relevant and vital...For the most part, the art world seemed precious
and elitist. NO Magazine was a fanzine of sorts, but it was a full-sized
newsprint thing, same size and format as Slash Magazine or the current
cultural scribe Arthur Magazine. It featured an assortment of hideous
images, interviews with bands of the time such as The Germs, X, and also
Suicide. There was also some writing in there. I don't know, kinda flimsy
when I think about it now. Oh well. I did 2 issues with my friend Bruce
Kalberg, then quit and started a band. We were called Little Cripples, then
Strict Ids, then just IDS. Not very good, musically, I'm sure.
Through Brian Eno's NO New York album I became aware of the No Wave scene
in NYC. I loved the music of Teenage Jesus, The Contortions, Glenn Branca et
al, and was also a huge fan of Suicide especially. New York seemed to be the
place for me, so I moved to NYC in 1979. As I'd done since a pretty young
age, I supported myself doing construction work - demolition, hanging
sheetrock, taping and plastering, painting - things like that. I started a
band called Circus Mort. It lasted a year or two, then fizzled. Again, in my
opinion, in retrospect, the music was appalling. What did I know? Ha ha! I
hadn't ever really taken responsibility for how the music was put together
in any of my endeavors to date, so when I started Swans in 1981 or 82 I was
determined to just figure it out myself. Somehow I had been asked by Rhys
Chatham to play bass in his ensemble, and I think I did one show or
something. I didn't know how to play bass - he showed me a few basic things,
even showed me how to tune. That didn't work out long with Rhys, but he let
me keep his bass for a while (a very nice guy), and I started "writing"
Swans material on it. Just chunks of sound, weird chords I made up and
hammered out in rhythm. Jonathan Kane was drumming in Swans at the
beginning, and more people soon followed (dozens over the years - see list
under band members).
Fairly soon Swans ended up with a drummer, a percussionist who beat on
metal and assorted drums, guitar, and two bass players. Eventually the great
guitarist Nowman Westberg joined, and also the drummer Roli Mossiman. I hit
on the idea of using pre taped cassette sounds - just mush and noise
basically, that would be amplified through a huge bass amp and "played" in
rhythm with the music by using a volume pedal to bring the sounds in and
out. The percussionist would control the tapes at first, then later the bass
player Harry Crosby did it. (Eventually I abandoned the tapes too, and moved
on to other things.) Everything was at ridiculous volume levels - roaring
away. I screamed my slogan-like lyrics over the top. The music felt great.
It was really a very selfish enterprise. The sheer volume, and the blunt
repetition of the sound/music was to me, anyway, truly transporting. For a
while, Swans was aligned with Sonic Youth - we played together constantly,
and even did a few disastrous tours together. But we parted company after a
short period.
Swans music - and personnel - changed constantly over the years. Jarboe got
involved in it around 1985/6... It was everything to me, 24 hours a day,
constant work and struggle, and I kept it going somehow for 15 years
(Ridiculous! ), despite its (to me) depressing lack of commercial success.
It's impossible to describe here the various musical turns it took, but it
would be safe to say that no single album represents the Swans. They're all
completely different. I think some of the music was quite excellent indeed,
but there's quite a few missteps along the way as well, of course, since I
was always shifting it in new directions, learning as things went along. In
any event, in 1997, I just said NO MORE, and laid it to rest. (Jarboe was
the longest-lasting Swans contributor of those mentioned above and
contributed more than can be mentioned here. To learn more about her, go
here: thelivingjarboe.com )
SWANS - Beautiful Child (Live '87)
My current musical endeavor is Angels of Light. I'm obviously more attached
to it than the music of Swans, since that project is dead and gone. Just
finishing up the 5th Angels album at the time of this writing...
I'm always changing the sonic approach from record to record. Just sitting
around my house, writing these songs, and then finally coming up with a
statement that I think makes sense through working on things in the studio.
Typically it's a pretty laborious and painful process. I'm always sure i
know exactly what i want when i go in the studio, but as soon as i actually
hear something recorded, my perception changes entirely. this can be
extremely frustrating for the people that take the dire step of working with
me, because i'm always changing my mind, usually forceful and certain of
what i want at any given moment, even though i don't really know what that
is exactly yet. ha ha!
The first album, New Mother, was released in 1999. Next came How I Loved
You, released in 2001. Then, Everything Is Good Hear/Please Come Home was
released in 2003. The album The Angels Of Light Sing Other People was out in
March of '05. The new one, We Are Him, will be out Summer of 07. (you can of
course learn more about these records by going to younggodrecords.com)
My friends, the various musicians who come and go on these records, are of
invaluable help in making the arrangements. I produce the Angels recordings,
and the production of the recordings is as important to me as the songs
themselves.I write the songs on acoustic guitar, then gather musicians and
friends, and build up the orchestrations with them in the studio and in live
performances. I guide the process, but solicit their creative contributions
actively. Each recording contains the contributions of an ever-changing
plethora of amazing musicians, whom I thank here heartily!
We Are Him began with my usual vows to keep things simple this time,
finally, and i failed once again to live up to the task. I went into the
studio with Akron/Family as backing band (as they had been on Other People).
We recorded all the basic tracks in a week. They played drums, bass, guitar,
piano, and backing vocals. Despite Akron's valorous efforts and fine
performances, things sounded thin and tentative to me, so i started calling
my friends to help me flesh things out. Christoph Hahn came to Brooklyn from
his home in Berlin (Christoph played in Swans for a while, and has played in
several Angels incarnations - he has his own group called Les Hommes Sauvage
too) and played his usual stellar "kraut-abilly" electric guitar stylings,
as well as open-tuned lap steel. That helped considerably, and gave the
songs balls, or bowels in many instances, as well as occasionally lifting
things up nach Himmel... Next came Bill Rieflin. Bill is as fine a gentleman
as you'll ever meet. He also played in Swans at one point. When i met him he
was drumming in Ministry. He's since moved on to play with Robert Fripp (off
and on i think), Robyn Hitchcock, and he currently is the drummer for REM.
He's an incredibly expressive musician, on a variety of instruments. He
played: Hammond B3 organ, Moog synthesizer, electric guitar, bass guitar,
drums/percussion, piano, casio, and backing vocals and probably 3 or 4
things I can't remember at the moment... Next the spirited and gracious
Eszter Balint played fiddle/violin to great effect. she played mostly drone
based parts, but injected a lot of feel through inflection and modulation.
she's a wonderful player and she also just brings a sense of warmth into the
studio which is most welcome. she also sang some backing vocals here and
there. Eszter first came to wide public notice through her central role in
the film Strangers In Paradise, but she's gone on to become a fine singer,
instrumentalist, and songwriter in her own right - look her up!....
Next came Julia Kent ..o and Paul Cantelon on violin. They played
multitracked string sections on a few songs here and there, "arranged" on
the fly. Julia's a member of Antony and The Johnsons, and she does some
arrangements as well as playing therein. Paul is primarily a pianist.
composer, arranger and recently a soundtrack composer for some high
fallutin' films, the names of which i now forget, but i like the way he
plays violin, with lots of warble and feeling. he and Julia work quite well
together too and have the added advantage (from my perspective) of
tolerating my vague descriptions and out of tune humming-of-part
suggestions, and then taking those scanty guidelines and making something
musical and fully realized out of them. no mean feat !.. next came my pal
and x-neighbor in Brooklyn Steve Moses. Steve's a drummer and trombone
player. He's in the band Alice Donut and also has his own solo extravaganza
called Drumbone and also an improv duo called Lambic. He played trombone
like a brontosaurus on this record. he also played drums and trombone on a
few of Devendra's YGR releases... next came the estimable musical
encyclopedia and flute player (and multi instrumentalist ) of true finesse
David Garland. he played flute on a few songs, and also did some rather deep
backing vocs. he's another great presence to have in the studio, though he's
a little intimidating because he's such a repository of all things musical.
he hosts the shows (on NYC public radio station WNYC) Evening Music and
Spinning On Air. Aside from playing classical music and film scores and
more, he's also been a big supporter of people like Devendra, Akron/Family,
Mi and L'au and other contemporary rock/folk related music, as well as
myself. David's also a songwriter/singer and should be checked out too!...
Next came the glorious Siobhan Duffy and Larkin Grimm, singing "Chick Vox"
on several songs (and Siobhan sings a cameo on the song Not Here/Not Now).
Siobhan drummed for years in the NYC noise/skronk band God Is My Co-Pilot,
but she went on to become the singer of the group Gunga Din, then drumming
for Kid Congo and also Flux Information Sciences. She's sadly temporarily
retired from music. she's got a very particular and unique voice, and it's a
big loss. Larkin is a wild-ass Georgia mountain woman, or She-Shaman, or
something. ha ha! she too has an amazing voice, a huge range and as a
songwriter she's eccentric and fiercely expressive and really coming into
herself. she's got a few CDs out - look for 'em. we're also in the nascent
stages of working on an album that she'll be putting out on Young God
Records... Next came my old touring buddy Phil Paleo. Phil was drummer in a
band called Cop Shoot Cop, but he played drums and yes, hammer dulcimer in
Swans final phase. he played hammer dulcimer on a few songs here... Birgit
"Cassis" Staudt played accordion and melodica on a few songs. She's played
and toured in several Angels incarnations, and she's a chanteuse you can
find playing cabarets and nightclubs in NYC... My big buddy and protector
Pat Fondiller played a little mandolin here and there. he did a great job.
his hands are bigger than the mandolin! Pat played bass on an Angels tour a
while ago, and he also plays in the hard rock combo Smokewagon... The record
was recorded at Trout Recording by Bryce Goggin and at Seizure's Palace by
Jason La Farge, both in Brooklyn, and in fact right around the corner where
i used to live. it was mixed by Bryce at Trout. thanks to them, and all the
above!
I now live in the Catskill Mountains, and I also run the record label Young
God Records. It generally consumes most of my time, but I accept that. It's
my "day job" but quite a decent one, though tedious at times. But I've had
the great pleasure of being able to produce or co-produce many of the acts
on the label, have always learned something new from working with the
musicians involved, and am delighted to be able to bring their music out
into the world. Some of the music YGR has released (aside from my own work):
Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family, Lisa Germano, Mi and L'au and a great deal
more. If you're interested, go to younggodrecords.com ...that's all I have
to say about myself, in fact I've said too much! Here below is an extensive
bio of me, if you're interested...
Dedicated to all the women, men, gays, lesbians or heteros, to all who have different politic opinions who are persecuted all over the world by laws, dictature, religions and corrupted states. From north to south, from west to east...
Luke Lukas is back with an album full of that gleeful gloom that made us love him at first sight. His trustworthy 4-tracks and him go their separate ways so he's now presenting 12 perfectly arranged folk songs to us. Luke reveals himself as a kind soul, but like the western movies taught us, a dreadful killer always hides under every placid looking Texan.
"Leaving his strongly lo-fi sound that impressed us the first time, he treasures the recipe, packing in this new plain, delightful work a caring love for vocals, which are worthy of Neutral Milk hotel, with a touch of Chordettes feel."Daniele Dileo - Lab Magazine
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