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...
I started Swans in 1982 in NYC. At the time, I had no musical skills
whatsoever, just instinct and a need to make something happen. The music
changed constantly over the years, and I'm gratified it reached, and
continues to reach, a fair number of people. After 15 years, I decided to
end Swans, as the name had become a burden and the associations no longer
fit with what I wanted to do into the future. I started Angels of Light in
1999, and that's my main musical focus now. I also run Young God Records and
release (and sometimes produce) music by people whose music I enjoy. Go to
the Young God website and take a look if you're interested.
- Best, Michael Gira younggodrecords.com
PS - Jarboe was the longest-lasting Swans contributor of those listed above
and contributed more than can be mentioned here. To learn more about her, go
here: thelivingjarboe.com
Here's some of the music that I enjoyed during the time of
Swans, though I'm not so sure about the word "influence" : Throbbing
Gristle, Psychic TV, The Stooges, Brian Eno, Teenage Jesus And The Jerks,
DNA, The Contortions, Glenn Branca, Black Flag, early Pink Floyd, This Heat,
Kraftwerk, Herman Nitsch, Cabaret Voltaire, Can, Public Image LTD., SPK,
Ennio Morricone, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, and always, always Bob Dylan and
The Beatles...ha ha! I'm sure there's 100s more, but who cares and I can't
remember anyway...mg
TOUR'S THE SWANSONG FOR GIRA
Text from Denver Post Jan. 16, 1997
By David Thomas
In the life cycle of rock music, most bands suffer endings poorly. Either
they disappear suddenly under the force of a lost record deal or bleed out
their musical force slowly in the public eye through endless reunion
concerts and rehashed compilations.
Michael Gira will have none of that. At the beginning of the final tour of
his band Swans, Gira took the time to discuss the end of a 15 year odyssey
as one of contemporary music's most highly regarded and overlooked bands. "I
just want to have it discreet, finished and over, and I can move on. I have
other ideas I want to do. I think it's necessary," he said by phone from
Florida.
Bursting from the NY scene in the early 80's, the Swans' sound was so heavy,
so threatening that listeners either fled in fear or joined the throng.
There was never a middle ground. And there still isn't.
Over time, Gira's sense of darkness deepened and in the process the songs
turned into something delicate and beautiful while remaining frightening.
Like a slow-motion plane disaster, a lyricism emerged from the chaos.
New listeners and old discovered a rock band with as much richness and
subtlety as a classical symphony orchestra.
Still, even with 15 years, 15 albums and mountains of gushing praise from
fans and critics alike, Gira saw that it was time to write the final coda
for his band.
"After 15 years of this grueling struggle with really no reward to show for
it, the intelligent thing to do would be to move on," he said.
Artistic triumph and personal despair mark the Swans. Claiming he would do
and has done just about anything to record his creative vision, Gira found
an enemy where you might expect an ally - the music industry.
"I loathe it entirely. We found our own little niche now, with our own
business and good distribution system, so we're able to survive on our own,
I just can't deal with it. I don't go out to clubs. I don't talk to A&R
people; I don't schmooze; I don't do anything to try to advance myself in
that way. I just can't stand it anymore. I tried in the early days. Of
course I was always pounding away. But there's only so much you can take."
Closing out the Swans' catalog is "Soundtracks For The Blind." If Gira has
been seeking a high point on which to end the Swans, then this is it. Two
CDs, packed with nearly 2 1/2 hours of music, the album is a scorching
journey through passion and pain. The discs combine music with sounds and
sonic interludes into something that strikes you as an actual sound track
for an unmade movie. Highly experimental without ever becoming cerebral,
"Soundtracks" works from the ambiguous emotional source where fear and
excitement, love and lust, tears of happiness, and tears of sorrow mingle.
"I had recorded these songs from the last group from last year's tour. And I
had a lot of backlog of sound-track-like things, as well as boxes full of
sounds, cassette loops and vocal loops from Jarboe, and all these narrative
things that we have from very personal sources. And I decided that I wanted
to pursue a direction that has sort of intrigued me after the last couple of
albums. I made the whole album into a segue feeling, where everything bleeds
from one unrelated sound to another," he explained.
"The thing that interested me most about this album - not that I'm not
interested in songs - but it's more interesting to me to look at the way one
thing works against something else than how they do individually. So it's a
process of listening to how it feels, what the experience is like going from
something that is incredibly intense to something very gentle. Those
juxtapositions interest me more than the things themselves."
Once the tour is completed, Gira intends to release a summary set of Swans
music in Double-CD sets, putting only the best of the band's work into an
accessible package for present and future fans. In addition, his label will
issue experimental soundscapes by Gira under the name Body Lovers and
another project of what Gira calls "long narrative songs" as the Angels of
Light.
The re-issues and the new projects will continue to sustain both Gira's
voracious artistic appetite as well as reward those lucky enough to seek out
his work or lucky enough to stumble upon it.
And as the Swans legacy fades into history, Gira can look back and see he
did what he set out to do.
"I never had an aim except to make music, not to convince people of
anything. I just had certain sounds I wanted to hear. I made them. Certain
sounds, certain ways of performing them that would cause a certain
experience to occur, in myself and/or the listener. And I made those things
happen."
This page overseen by M.Gira and administered by SERENTA for YGR
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As winter hibernation and spring awakening gives way to summer, Halo Manash rises radiant into luminosity, with wings spread into all worlds, and brings forth Taiwaskivi, an opulent work of solar ambience and primordial Ur-music.
Taiwaskivi, a work of sonic flame and aural ash, consists of seven interrelated tracks, utilizing such diverse instrumentation as organ, horns, vocals, drums, gongs, percussions and various string instruments as well as field-recordings captured during the pilgrimage that the creation of the work embodies.
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