The Rebirth of Swans

In 2007, I had seen pretty much every Angels of Light or Michael Gira solo tour that had happened since the breakup of Swans. I was pretty burnt my missing the final Swans Are Dead tour so I took every opportunity. Then Gira released a new Angels album with Akron/Family as the backing band. It's all fairly repetitive and hypnotic compared to earlier Angels of Light records, but "Black River Song" in particular kind of exploded my mind when I heard it. Combined with the cover art by Deryk Thomas, who also painted Love of Life and White Light From The Mouth of Infinity covers, it all added up to Swans. I couldn't stop listening to the tune, and probably telling everyone I knew that this meant Swans were coming back.

At the advent of the Swans reboot, Michael Gira repeatedly told a wonderful yarn. Seth of Akron/Family hit a huge chord on stage and it made Gira realize that he wanted more Swans. But when I listen to this tune, I still feel like it was there, dying to get out. And given that he's done what might be his best stuff since the reboot, I'm pretty glad it was.