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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ค. 2017
- Buy on iTunes: itunes.apple.com/album/id1102...
Hello, thank you for listening to our music. I hope it gives you some joy and pleasure.
I am pleased that you have discovered our music through this medium. I view this experience as the equivalent of previewing a record in a record store in days of old. However, if you wish to experience the music in its' fullest form, I would strongly encourage you to acquire it in a physical format you can bring into your home. Not only will you then be able to experience the richest version of the music sonically, but you will also be afforded the opportunity to enjoy the tangible artwork, which was conceived in tandem with the music, and serves as a further portal to experiencing the total conceptual and spiritual and emotional content of the work we have labored, lovingly, to bring to you.
I love you,
- Michael Gira / Swans / Young God Records
Official Young God Records / Swans Store (all albums hand signed by M. Gira): bit.ly/1rY35P8
Swans on iTunes: bit.ly/1nZmr5R - เพลง
![Swans - 4 - The Cloud of Unknowing - Live@Sentrum, Kiev [10.07.2015]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/dF6cGi1ou7g/mqdefault.jpg)
Call me crazy, but 14:35-16:20 is Swans’ best ever moment, and possibly the greatest climax I’ve ever heard in music
I am a bit late but... the name of the track is a reference to an anonymous text from the late 14th century (the cloud of unknowyng). The text was written by a mystic european monk to teach to a younger monk how to reach enlightment. The "cloud" represents the step that the monk has to take: to reach God you need to leave every certainty and embrace oblivion through an act of love.
The author was anonymous so it is unknown whether they were a monk.
Cloud of Unknowing is a classic within apophatic theology en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite is an essential character in this tradition of theology: According to Corrigan and Harrington, "Dionysius' central concern is how a triune God, ... who is utterly unknowable, unrestricted being, beyond individual substances, beyond even goodness, can become manifest to, in, and through the whole of creation in order to bring back all things to the hidden darkness of their source."
Furthermore, I am I is the definition God gives to Moses as the the burning bush about what or who he is. A=A is also a central definition in Fichte and when in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, spirit reaches the absolute it can finally with full honestly posit itself as self identical.
This dude is trash. Ads.
Yeah Gira has an interest in such works, he gave me personal recommendations and encouraged me to look into mysticism so this is very likely
I want to legally marry that bass riff at the end.
Listening to their albums feels like partaking in a ritual of some sort. It's like being in a church and being mesmerized by the sounds, words, smells and sublime images and architecture
Gira's little speech about physical media in the description is pretty beautiful ngl
Yeah that's an incredible way to think. To imagine people used to lock their music behind iTunes
I studied the original Cloud of Unknowing text at uni, years before I heard this. This pretty accurately sonically describes what it's like to read.
I find myself listening to this almost daily. The Glowing Man is an incredible album. When I first heard it, I knew it was amazing but I still found it to be below To Be Kind. However, it's grown on me so much over time. Whereas To Be Kind instantly captured me while still had plenty of room for discovery, The Glowing Man is so much more mysterious, and I feel it actually needs more time than previous albums to fully take it in.
Well said! 👌
For me it was opposite. To Be Kind took me a few listens to get into whilst The Glowing Man got me instantly.
@@slateman118 Same
I agree. I didn't get these two 'cloud' tracks to start with but now finding them very deep.
@@slateman118 same
Oh my fucking god. This is one of the greatest songs ever made by anyone. I'm really high rn and just absolutely in awe. The fact that humans can make this is proof that our kind can go extremely beyond our current capabilities as a species. Just fugg, man.
Haha, listening to this under the effects of cannabis as well. My sentiments also. This album resonates with me in a personal way. Feels like a soundtrack to a very painful and rich story.
Nice pfp lol
Sober and still pretty much the same. Absolutely Epic
I listened to this on 300 ug in the woods with a friend and also with my brother some years ago and oh fuck, I felt I was Gandalf the Grey, it was so amazing and beautiful, those words fall short for what this song means to me.
yeahhhh sematary
the drone behind the music in this is my favorite part of the entire song. I do not know why but whenever I hear it - chills.
Listening to this makes me feel like I understand everything in the universe.
not an incorrect assumption
you know nothing
Just as if you entered the cloud of unknowing the book talks about
Listening to this makes me feel I don't need to try to understand everything. This and the way it makes me feel are all that matters.
Listen to it in acid. You won't regret it.
This is why I listen to music, period
This is easily my favorite swans song and really is the apex for their sound and what they have done musically i love it so much, changed how i listen to music
15:11 god damn I can’t get enough of this part
Hearing this live was pure insanity.
22:04 is that the fucking kitchen nightmares violin sound?!?!
This song live was overwhelming. I was hearing through my mouth. Ave ave
Cloud of Unknowing, by Swans.
25+ minutes long.
I was surprised to discover that it was written as a prayer. Here's the background for the song, the excerpt from which the name was taken (from a text by an unknown author from long ago):
“For He can well be loved, but He cannot be thought. By love He can be grasped and held, but by thought, neither grasped nor held. And therefore, though it may be good at times to think specifically of the kindness and excellence of God, and though this may be a light and a part of contemplation, all the same, in the work of contemplation itself, it must be cast down and covered with a *cloud of forgetting* (name of first track on album). And you must step above it stoutly but deftly, with a devout and delightful stirring of love, and struggle to pierce that darkness above you; and beat on that thick *cloud of unknowing* (name of second track on album) with a sharp dart of longing love, and do not give up, whatever happens.”
Raw, powerful music.
Lol, "I hope it gives you some joy and pleasure."
If only you really knew...
I think he knows
Of course he knows, he *sees it all*.
Ha Ha Ha Ha. Nice!
hihi
14:34
I live for this
Those Swans moments that open up into infinity
Killer! Beautiful!
This kept me in a hypnotic trance the whole time. These crazy mantras just sunk me into this deep swirling trance and I'm so grateful for the experience. Thank you, Swans!
6:00 sets the image of treading through a desert in exhaustion, heat waves engulfing your vision
The desert seems to be a reoccurring piece of imagery when I listen to Swans. Especially on this album, To Be Kind, and certain tracks of Soundtracks for the Blind.
For me its wandering through a forest at night.
That’s what I picture during Bring the Sun, right after the intense beginning.
@@kevingroholski1485 Agreed, there is a very eastern "Man in search of a soul" vibe on these records. Although the seer makes me think more so of a medieval forest in new England or something
Actually I always saw the trilogy as somewhat a sonic equivalent of a western movie, written both by tarantino who brought in the violent aspects and Tim Burton who brought in the creepy ideas. It's just like a journey, every time. The Seer, To be Kind and The Glowing man...it just feels like a lone cowboy riding through the desert and getting into fights and trouble every now and then, but his only goal actually is finding peace...
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed. That always comes to my mind when I start with one of those albums, may it be The Seer, To Be Kind, or this one...
Wow Swans wow
Twin peaks?
that song you like is going to come back in style
This is chilling as hell honestly
Their absolute Best!!! Surpasses
even The Seer
3:14 Ezekiel's vision of God in the sky.
I can't explain how this music makes me feel
Certain moments on the track are reminiscent of SFTB’s Animus
The despair of being.I am,I am..
Toujours aussi Humain ! quand on sait qu'ils ont influencé tant et tant de personnes et de groupes depuis toutes ces années ! Swans m'accompagnent dans ma peinture au même titre que : Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Jesu ( Justin Broadrick ), A Silver Mt. Zion . . . Merci à Michael Gira .
@@Gy0952 take it from someone who speaks it, it is not that elegant and sensual language and learning it is more trouble than it's worth
To me, he is singing about the creation of God.
makes me feel like the world is on fire
Underrated.
AAghhhhhh!! Someone had to write that! How can you say it's underrated when it's almost universally highly rated?!
I think it is better than the Seer, Bring The Sun or The Glowing Man!
Music to read Blood Meridian to
This track blows me away every time. It perfectly depicts a story arc of spiraling out of control and a descent into darkness or insanity.
I see it as an ascension or the path towards enlightenment, the bit at 14 minutes feels like opening up the doors to the heavens and going blind.
There is a book whit that name ",cloud of unknowing" ("la nube del no saber (y el libro de la orientacion particular)" (in spanish) an anonymous work of christian mysticism written in half of the 14th century, The underlying message of this work suggests that the way to know God is to abandon consideration of God's particular activities and attributes, and be courageous enough to surrender one's mind and ego to the realm of "unknowing", at which point one may begin to glimpse the nature of God.(from wikipedia), i have and read that book in my teen years i dont remember much, but its interesant . Excuse my english I dont write very well.
I've always imagined this track as an ancient mayan sacrifice.
Idk why but it gives me that feeling.
Like every single beat is one footstep going up the piramid, and that every one of the singing breakdowns is the chaman calling upon quetsalcoatl to eat the sacrifice's heart.
And in the big breakdown the hole fucking piramyd is lifted up into the heavens and then there's a fucking meteorite shower that destroys the entire earth.
Really cool visualization. I have a different one but yours is also insane
Phenomenal!
listening in the forest
can i come?
Based god
i love you too michael
9:40 yuh
Adddicted to this
Intro sounds like an intense F1 race
WOW
My favorite from the album,this is something you would hear after death for me
this bass at the end tho... the groove... fuck
True Believer
Grandeur
great
Doo Doo Doo Doo do do do do
doo doo doo DOOoOOO
I don't know if I will ever crack the code. Really early Swans felt like someone taking a sledgehammer to the code. Then Michael decided he respected it and it grew to be a more elaborate code, one of beauty and vastness that you could witness and appreciate through a wide lens. Once they did SFTB, it became harder to crack the code but not impenetrable. But the last decade of Swans, I'm still coming at slowly because I'm unsure about it. I try to decode it and it doesn't want to crack. Which should mean that it's EVEN BETTER.
im not sure how to decode "space cunt"
@@jennbaker6964 Ha! Maybe some things just weren't meant to be.
If there is a code to 'crack', it is that there is no code to crack. Knowing is unknowing. The title of the track is a big clue, as it relates to the written piece of the same name from the 14th century, with no credited author. The main theme of the piece of writing is that the only way to truly know God is to abandon the search for his/her/its identity and dive into the idea that not knowing opens up a world of possibility. To abandon the idea of 'knowing' God, or divinity, and to surrender to the truth that the only certainty you can have is that you don't know anything really. Socrates is believed to have thought that he was only wiser than others because he was the only one who seemed to recognise his own ignorance.
The Glowing Man as an album I think perfectly captures this idea. Surrender all preconceived notions. Surrender thinking. Surrender knowledge. Just experience.
@@el_mal_de_ojo Thank you for your wonderful reply.
I think there's complete truth in what you say and I'm sure that's a lot of what Michael Gira is going for here. Even if he doesn't believe in an anthropomorphic deity (and last I knew, he doesn't), he understands the phenomenon and power of spirituality.
The code I'm talking about though is more like the LAYERS in art. And in truth, I never wish to completely crack the code. To me, that code is like the mysteries of existence. If one were to crack them all open, one would lose all sense of wonder and awe at the world. The reason one can stand at the edge of the Grand Canyon and be dumbfounded by the view is that we can't fully fathom the scale of what we're viewing. Man is but tiny to the Universe, or perhaps God (as some would say), and will always remain so.
The mystery in art is something which retains its potency over time as something to repeatedly witness or engage. Scale and complexity are what keep that code from being cracked. When there are merely a couple/few simple layers in a song, one can easily pick them apart and look at that song rationally and see what makes it tick. This is all I mean by "cracking the code." And when the code is cracked, one is no longer excited by it. This is why many people's favorite films are the ones they can watch repeatedly and find different things in each and every time they watch it. Kubrick films are of course notorious for this.
All said, this is by far my favorite of the post-hiatus Swans albums. I love what you say - it's like Michael has surrendered himself to the greatness of it all, something he may understand as a musical visionary but more importantly, something he deeply respects as a human who has been through a lot. Much like an honest reporter who is committed to reporting the truth as it is, I believe MG feels beholden to his work as if it were sacred and not something he forges to pat his own back or ego but rather exists to play its own role in the understanding of the greater universe - whether or not one is religious, spiritual or neither.
@@sex6cult9revolution Sorry for the delay in replying, and thank you for your comment / reply. I'm replying on a separate account.
I agree with everything you have written, and thanks for elaborating on what you mean about 'cracking the code'. I fully agree with the sentiment - art that resonates with me the most is when I know deep down that I don't fully understand it. There are layers upon layers to decipher...and even if I had it in me to fully decipher it, I am not sure I would choose to do so. There is a beauty in the unknown. I echo what you wrote - part of what appeals to me the most about Gira's approach to his music / art is the honesty. My favourite musicians share this - they may not be stylistically similar, but they are all trying to make tangible something intangible within themselves. Most likely, it's their attempt to understand themselves and the world around them, and give us a glimpse into their world so that we may glean something personal ourselves through the experience.
TGM is also my favourite post-reunion Swans release, exactly because of how nebulous and dense it is. Without exaggerating I have heard it at least 300 times in its entirety and I always find something new to enjoy, or rediscover something that doesn't lose potency. Even when fully deciphering the musical codas, the subject matter of what Gira speaks about is so intensely personal and complex that it can only be approached from a position of subjectivity and emotion.
What you say about the sacredness of his approach resonates, also - having seen Swans and Gira solo, there is always a reverential quality to it. He seems to understand that the music is bigger than him, bigger than the individual sum of it parts. It also explains why he rarely goes to the back catalog - things are always moving forward, old ideas are left alone in order to search for something new.
Ok so pretty interesting story: the second time I got high I decided to make a playlist that had Dark Side of the Moon, The Mollusk by Ween, and The Glowing Man, I was in pure bliss as I was lying in bed listening to it, feeling things I had never felt before. Anyway I fell asleep during Ocean Man, and woke up at around 10:25 in Cloud of Unknowing. I legitimately felt like I had seen the face of fucking god or something
Do you still have the playlist? I'd love to give it a listen, it sounds cool.
@@abdullaalsaleh I deleted it but I think I remember everything. I’ll make it again and send it to you
@@abdullaalsaleh I may’ve left out a song or two at the beginning, but this is it. More or less th-cam.com/play/PLZbnO3-tQjmzU1993lYX0fR5h4OZUAeN7.html
if only you knew how bad things really are
woah, that's deep
Wow so deep
Bury me to this. Fucking glorious.
How dare you put an ad in this. Blasphemy!
ClandestineOstrich the algorithm is blasphemous
3:14 hysteria... just make you feel as you were in hell... awesome sensation
But what do the lyrics mean??? My I.Q. isnt fast enough pls help me!
Look into the book "Cloud of Unknowing" it's a Christian guide to mystical prayer that Gira used as inspiration for this song.
Perhaps the search for meaning is, in itself, a fools errand. Perhaps meaninglessness is more valuable.
'sit down, meditate and don't be evil'
It's conscious awareness in eternity learning that eternity is in awareness
piano from floyd's Echoes
Jesus Christ loves me, and that makes me feel fulfilled and whole in the deepest conceivable sense.
Aside from that...
Having just read the description...
I've discovered that Michael Gira also loves me.
And that's a different feeling.
It makes me want to push over a mailbox and howl at a ladybug and carefully fist bump an ant.
These are all excellent things.
69th comment and holy shit this hits
This song could have been in fight club
FARK
speed this up to x2 for one hell of an experience fam squad
Actually remember me a part of She loves us when the drums and the bass start to kick in
more like
one half of an experience.
Mid roll advertisements during a SWANS song is blasphemy.
The World's End Girlfriend meets Birdman.
this is the best thing ever made what the fuck
I don't know why I like it
But I like it!