Swans has announced plans to record a new studio album, raising funds to pay for it via the release of a live album called Live Rope 2024. The live material was recorded in Brooklyn, NY in 2024 and in Den Haag, Netherlands in 2023.
Speaking of the live recording, Michael Gira states:
With soul-lacerating commitment and relentless pursuit of our own truth through sound we Swans Schechter, Gira, Hahn, Mullins, Puleo, and Pravdica managed over the course of a year of rehearsing and improvisation and revision and reiteration and failure and resuscitation and endless touring to forge a set of music that was in the end inexplicable, especially to us. I'm not being mystical when I say that the sound we ultimately generated in our live performances became a living autonomous entity that played us like marionettes. I felt it, so I know it happened. So even though our physical and psychic dedication to the effort was crucial we can't in good faith take credit for the experience. We threw ourselves into the wind and the hand of God moved us forward. (I have no idea, for instance, how the 1st piece Rope/The Beggar eventually grew into a continuous 82-minute performance). I remain astonished that music that often began with me sitting alone in my office strumming a battered and barely workable acoustic guitar, over time and through countless hours of communal sweat and blood and exhaustion and no small measure of ecstasy eventually rose full-bodied from the quotidian mud of existence and screamed its name to heaven. My hope now, with the music captured as faithfully as possible in these recordings, is that you will experience something of the joy we experienced while making it. God bless you!
It is sold in the following formats:
TRACK LISTINGS
2X DELUXE Digipak CD: CD1: Rope, The Beggar (78:24) CD2: The Hanging Man, Away, Birthing, Cathedrals of Heaven (69:28)
Entire Williamsburg show, plus “Cathedrals of Heaven” from Den Haag
4XLP: SIDE ONE: Rope SIDE TWO: Rope (cont.), The Beggar SIDE THREE: The Beggar (cont.) SIDE FOUR: The Beggar (cont.) SIDE FIVE: The Hanging Man, Away SIDE SIX: Birthing SIDE SEVEN: Birthing (cont.) SIDE EIGHT: The Memorious… (total time approx. 2Hrs 30 Mins)
Entire Williamsburg show plus “The Memorious” from Den Haag.
USB CREDIT CARD: Rope, The Beggar, The Hanging Man, Away, Birthing, The Memorious, Cathedrals of Heaven, Leaving Meaning… (total time approx. 3Hrs, 3 mins)
USB Credit Card = Entire unedited* Williamsburg Show plus three songs from Den Haag (“The Memorious”, “Cathedrals of Heaven” and “Leaving Meaning”)
* The CD and LP versions of this album have been lightly edited to fit within their format restrictions. The Jump Drive is entirely unedited.
• INSERT TO CD AND LP VERSIONS SIGNED BY M.GIRA •
Option 1 = 2XCD Deluxe Digipack - $25: Web site exclusive.
Option 2 = 2XCD Deluxe Digipack + USB Credit Card - $40: Limited to 200 units unavailable anywhere else.
Option 3 = 2XCD Deluxe Digipack + USB Credit Card + T-shirt - $60: Limited to 100 units unavailable anywhere else. You will be contacted after you place your order regarding the size of shirt you would like.
Option 4 = 4XVinyl Box Set + USB Credit Card + Poster - $140: Limited to 200 units unavailable anywhere else.
Option 5 = 4XVinyl Box Set + USB Credit Card + 2XCD Deluxe Digipack + T-shirt + Poster - $210: Limited to 600 units unavailable anywhere else. You will be contacted after you place your order regarding the size of shirt you would like.
Option 6 = 4XVinyl Box Set (Executive Producer level) + USB Credit Card + 2XCD Deluxe Digipack + T-shirt + Poster + Limited Edition 12” x 12” Signed Screen Print WITH YOUR NAME ON IT! - $325: Limited to 200 units unavailable anywhere else. LPs inserted into chipboard Euro Sleeves, with full color poster and 12 x12 insert, packaged into a heavyweight 120 point box with printed lid. You will be contacted after you place your order regarding the size of shirt you would like.
