Antony and the Johnsons will release their new album, Swanlights, on October 12th in North
America via Secretly Canadian. Abrams Image will simultaneously release a special edition of
Swanlights which will include the CD inside a 144-page art book containing Antony’s paintings,
collages, photography and writing. The album only version of Swanlights on Secretly Canadian
will also include the song “Flétta”, a duet with Bjork. The album and book are a continuation of
Antony’s work exploring environmental issues and his connection to the natural world.
While I Am a Bird Now was arresting in its simplicity and vision and The Crying Light is a
masterpiece of austerity, Swanlights may be Antony’s most wide-ranging emotional work to
date. It is a record that is at moments excruciating and tender, and at other times has a wicked
gleam to its teeth. Musically it’s the most maximal of his work to date.Whereas on The Crying
Light, Antony paired everything back to its most distilled and essential, on Swanlights the vines
have become overgrown and the sound palette has become more exotic, strange percussive
elements, John Cale-esque string drones, heavily distorted guitars and symphonic voicings
thread the song cycle together.
Swanlights is the fourth Antony and the Johnsons album and the follow up to the critically
acclaimed smash The Crying Light which topped year-end best of lists across the globe in 2009.
Antony burst into the international spotlight with his second album, I Am a Bird Now, which
won the UK’s prestigious Mercury Music Prize.
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