We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun In Our Head

Recorded variously in Melbourne Australia, Berlin Germany, and NYC. SWANS: michael gira - guitar, vocal; norman westerg - guitar; phil puleo - drums, duclimer; thor harris - drums/percussion, vibes, clarinet, melodica, violin; christoph hahn - double lap steel guitar; christopher pravdica - bass. These recordings capture the rejuvenated and invigorated Swans as the group staked out new sonic and rhythmic terrain in 2010/11. The seeds of much of the upcoming album The Seer are contained herein as the group developed new material while on tour. The tour(s) saw Swans enjoy the largest and most diverse audiences of their career. Contrary to the expectations of some, the experience was, though sometimes extreme, always joyous. Note from Michael Gira: Thanks to all of you who attended the Swans shows during our recent tours. The experience, for us, was life-giving and nourishing. The audiences were not only the largest with which we’ve ever been blessed, but the most genuinely connected and in tune with the sonic/psychic experience in which we all participate. Thank you!... Represented in these discs are the best recordings we could provide of the (ever-evolving) shows. Those of you who attended the early shows realize that the first iterations of the music morphed and grew (seemingly with a will more expansive than our own) into something quite different by the end. This, in itself, was immensely gratifying. We also developed many new songs – or sonic events is perhaps a better way to describe some of them - along the way. In compiling these recordings and mixing them with my trusted friend and engineer Kevin McMahon (at Marcata Studio, Gardiner NY), we did our best to represent that transition... if you choose to acquire this 2 disc set, in my view it would behoove you to listen to the music at a generous volume level. This has absolutely nothing to do with an aggressive intent, as some mistakenly assume. Exactly the opposite, in fact. As with the live experience, it’s all about immersion. We – Swans - experience that sense of being subsumed in something greater than ourselves when we perform, too. Maybe that’s even our selfish reason for making the music in the first place. At the best of moments, it doesn’t even feel as if we are playing the music ourselves. More that we’re animated – vivified – by the ongoing sonic wave. I can’t speak for my friends and cohorts, but it’s what I live for. In any event, it’s my hope these discs provide you with a positive experience of some sort....

Focusing on new material, this live 2xCD collection from Swans' first tour in more than a decade finds the loud, mean, and complicated Michael Gira-led sextet beating past successes with the purpose of the present.

If reunions are about looking back, about rehashing the past, then Michael Gira's reformation of Swans is no reunion.