A new appointment with the musical programme of the Santa Chiara Cultural Services Centre in Trento, ready to host one of the most important and revolutionary bands in rock music, the "SWANS". The New York band led by "Michael Gira" will be at the Auditorium Santa Chiara in Trento on Monday 26 February 2024 with a unique and unmissable concert, which will be opened by "Maria W Horn", Swedish sound artist and experimental composer.
Founded in 1982 by Michael Gira, "Swans" is a New York band, one of the most revolutionary in rock music. Initially known for their raw and brutal sound shot at high volume, for the extreme and abject imagery of the lyrics written by Gira and sung by her thunderous voice, in the following 15 years the Swans recorded a decisive change and a continuous evolution of their music.
After the initial albums "Filth" (1983) and "Cop" (1984), the ensemble arrived in 1986 at proto-industrial rock with "Greed", then moved on to more idyllic atmospheres with the double album "Children of God", a milestone in 1987, to sweeter acoustic meditations with "The Burning World" (1989), up to the more evocative atmospheres of "White Light" from the Mouth of Infinity (1991) and "Love of Life" (1993), and to the more dissonant and cutting sounds of the album "The Great Annihilator" (1994). However, after "Soundtracks For The Blind" of 1996, Swans' manifest album of thattime, Michael Gira decided to disband the group.
After thirteen years of concerted activity on stage and in the studio as a musician and producer, in 2010 Gira believes that the time has come to bring the Swans back to life, and he does so with "My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky", an album that registers great critical and sales results, thus starting a new and bright period of success for the band born in New York.
In June 2023, Swans announced the release of their sixteenth studio album, "The Beggar", also announcing new dates for their new and long-awaited tour (between the United Kingdom, Europe and North America), which will also stop in Trento on February 26.
Swans consists of Michael Gira (vocals and acoustic guitar), Kristoh Hahn (lap steel, guitars, vocals), Larry Mullins (percussion, drums, vibraphone, Mellotron, keyboards, backing vocals), Dana Schechter (bass, keyboards, lap steel, piano, vocals), Christopher Pravdica (bass, keyboards, vocals), Phil Puleo (drums, percussion, piano, vocals).
The task of opening the Trento concert will fall to Maria W Horn, a Swedish sound artist and experimental composer, whose work seeks to explore the intrinsic spectral properties of sound.
In her compositions Maria W Horn uses a very varied instrumentation, ranging from analogue synthesizers to choirs, from string instruments to the pipe organ, up to various formats of chamber music. The result is a synthetic sound often combined with acoustic instruments to extend the timbre capabilities of the instruments with precise control of timbre, tuning and structure.
