Michael Gira, founding figurehead of Swans, gives us 20 original drawings, a handmade art package, and a new Swans album. 2010 is looking pretty sweet.
For six months, Gira fleshed out 20 drawings entitled “I Am Not Insane” on a blank 8 1/2 x 11 Ouija board, better known as cheap copy paper. He points out that his drawings are filled with “cosmic fury and dismay, addiction, love, bliss, hope, and an adolescent fascination with gross, icky things” – where he hopes in the end we'll find it useful for our own purposes. He goes more into the details of his process and idiosyncrasies here and here.
These drawings act as companion to the limited edition signed and numbered handmade CD/DVD package made under the same title in an effort to raise funds for a new Swans album of solo home recordings and a DVD of live footage. (After Swan's breakup in 1997, the band is getting back into the studio and succumbing to what Gira calls “fate.” Though don't call it a reunion, “it's not some dumbass nostalgia act. It is not repeating the past.”)
I did just notice though that he posted this: “Please do not upload any of the material contained in this package onto the web or 'share' it all over the god damn place.” So, be nice kids and go buy his album and book through his label Young God Records once they're available again.
