FINAL “BIG SOUND”
LIVE PERFORMANCE RELEASE
4-VINYL + DVD / CD + DVD
MUTE / YOUNG GOD RECORDS
“What followed were over two and a half hours of music, in total just five songs with an intensity and euphoric density that eclipsed that of the previous Gira-led shows I witnessed. In emotional intensity, the concert was often closer to a tribal ritual than musical expression usually allows” – Beats Per Minute live review of Berlin, 28 Nov 2025
Swans’ latest album, Newly Sentient Being, a record of their final “Big Sound” performance (28 November 2025), and a glorious goodbye to this stellar version of Swans: Michael Gira, Kristof Hahn, Dana Schechter, Larry Mullins, Phil Puleo, Christopher Pravdica, and Norman Westberg is out now. The album is available as 4-vinyl + DVD set with poster, double CD + DVD with fold out booklet, and digitally via Mute / Young God Records (N America).
Newly Sentient Being features superb recordings of Swans’ final concert of an era that ran from 2010-2025 and is the apotheosis of 15 years of cosmic sonic expressionism, alternately heavenly and debased, visceral and transcendent. Recorded in Berlin, it features two and a half hours of music, including a wealth of new material never before recorded, and a DVD of the performance directed by Marco Porsia and Peter Harton. Newly Sentient Being is up there with the best of Swans’ illustrious records, they close this chapter with love and unbridled passion.
“In 2010 I made the decision to reconvene my band, Swans, which I had, years earlier, killed out of frustration, disappointment and exhaustion. Now, I saw a light, a way forward for the music, and I decided to pursue it. Neither I, nor my collaborators in sound had any idea how things would eventually unfold, but it felt necessary and right, so we followed the music where it led. Turns out there was and is an audience for our music, which is often less than accessible in the popular sense of the term, but proved to be nevertheless compelling to a growing cadre of folks seeking the kind of unique experience we have offered.
I believe we reached some pretty tremendous highs along the way, where the music became a raging, sentient autonomous beast that played us (and the audience/listener), rather than the reverse. That was the goal all along, to lose ourselves in the swirl. It took a lot out of us, physically and psychically to reach the highest plateaus, but once there, there was nothing on earth like it, and I’m glad we did it. Now this phase is finished. There’s nowhere else to take it, but we seem to have ended on a particularly high note with our final tour of this (now passing) Swans era, and I believe these current recordings convey the sensations and experience of the unique world we forged. For the next phase, I’m moving Swans into something with a decidedly more humble, and intimate musical palette, but here now I offer my praise to the righteous group of humans, the musicians that made our final foray into the sonic ether a reality: Norman Westberg, Dana Schechter, Phil Puleo, Larry Mullins, Kristof Hahn, Christopher Pravdica, and I was in there flailing somewhere too.” – Michael Gira / Swans
Newly Sentient (cat # STUMM537)
The End of Forgetting
The Merge
Paradise Is Mine
Newly Sentient Being
The End of Regretting
