After three years, the thunderous Swans are returning to Kino Šiška with their new album To Be Kind, which was released on May 13 this year by the Mute label.
Michael Gira is years 1982 founded the influential New York band Swans. They soon became famous for their murderous, brutal and repetitive attacks of sound, extreme volume and the self-destructive, miserable screaming and growling of Giro's vocals, spewing slogans as a joke. The Swans went out of business in 1997 after releasing an album Soundtracks for the Blind, on which they combined all their musical elements. In 2010, they unexpectedly reactivated and released a critically acclaimed album My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky. In 2012, they received an extraordinary response from critics with a double album The Seer, and their new album was released this year To Be Kind.
To Be Kind represents the follow-up to an album of epic proportions such as The Seer (2012), as it is once again an album that takes more than two hours, with long, otherwise minimalistic, but nevertheless well-structured compositions that do not only represent a unique sound experience, as the music of Giro's band is known for it also awakens and (literally) moves other senses in the listener's body. That's why To Be Kind, even though it's a difficult record to listen to, one of the biggest musical surprises of this year, and a must-read for all fans of fringe music genres.
The Swans will awaken the senses this time October 16 at 9:00 p.m in Kinu Šiška. Tickets at cost 18€ are available at Eventim.
