Fantano favorite Swans are back with ten-ton single "I Am a Tower" and a declaration from frontman Michael Gira:

"This album [is] my final foray (as producer/impresario) into the all-consuming sound worlds that have been my obsession for years.

"We'll do a final tour in this mode towards the end of 2025, then that's it."

The upcoming album, Birthing, will be out May 30 via Young God. This is Swans' 17th record, and follows 2023 release The Beggar, which ran over two hours and included the 43-minute "The Beggar Lover (Three)." If you want to dedicate nearly 20 minutes to music that stands like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, check out "I Am a Tower", the lead single, below.

Gira promises that Swans will continue after Birthing, but in what he calls a "pared down" format.

Of the album, Gira had this to say:

"In all cases the material began with me sitting in my office with an acoustic guitar, singing and dreaming about what would become of these skeletal songs. I’m blessed to have such a stellar group of musicians to work with live (listed below), and through improvisation, endless revisions and an intensity of focus in performance (not to mention endurance), over the course of time the music morphed into what you generally hear on this collection."

Birthing is out May 30. Preorder here. Full tracklist below:

1. The Healers
2. I Am a Tower
3. Birthing
4. Red Yellow
5. Guardian Spirit
6. The Merge
7. Rope: Instrumental
8. Away