Michael Gira and Swans have announced a special live album that will be sold as a means to raise funding to record a new studio album.

The 2-disc live album, entitled Not Here / Not Now, was record in Barcelona, Spain and Melbourne, Australia during the band’s 2012-2013 world tour. The release also includes acoustic demo recordings of songs to be on the new studio album, as well as handmade packaging and cover art created by Nicole Boitos, based upon a concept/sketch by Gira, who personally signed each cover himself.

The album will be sold in familiar crowdfunding fashion, with tiers of contributions, including a $100 tier that gets the buyer “executive producer” credit on the album and a $500 tier that rewards the buyer with “a video of a simple, short, original song, acoustic guitar and voice, with customers’ name in the song, praising the customer, his or her ancestors, thoughts, dreams, and future or past lives, forever,” written and sung by Gira. Other incentives include a screen printed poster and VIP guest list access for their upcoming tour.

The resulting profits will then be used to record and release of the upcoming studio album, which consists of songs written and perfected during the band’s last tour, and is expected to be released in late spring of 2014. About the project, Gira stated on the band’s website:

As was the case with our last studio album, The Seer, we’re just going to go in the studio now and record endlessly, as a first stage. In this instance, we’ve managed to wrangle a great, live-in studio in the middle of the desert in West Texas. Once the tenure of my friends in Swans is finished there, I’ll remain, recording more with other cohorts, and I’ll travel around a bit, trying to find ways to wrestle the music into a shape that suits it’s core intent (and maybe also contravenes it). I hope the songs change and develop beyond recognition. Along the way I’ll get more friends in to augment the sounds, and then hack at it and add more (always more) until there is no more, then start cutting things away again. I won’t pay any attention to the LENGTH of the thing, in the end, or how long it takes to make – or how many enemies I make along the way – ha ha!. Who knows how long the final effort will be – 2 hours, 3, 4? Maybe it’ll just be a strangled little worm, 10 minutes long. At the end I’ll figure out some way to put it in some sort of format that makes sense. During the last record, I realized, what difference does it make? We’re not exactly trying to make music that’s accessible in the regular music world, so why accept any constraints whatsoever? What’s an “album,” and who cares? People that are inclined to be interested will find it if they want. Just let the music dictate the final shape, nothing else. So I don’t know what will happen. Once the music shows me that it’s had enough of my interference it’ll be done, and that’s it. For that last bit of freedom – the faith you’ve shown in these endeavors – I am sincerely grateful to supporters such as yourself, indeed!

Not Here / Not Now is what has now become known as a “fundraiser” or “crowd-sourcing” CD. I’ve been doing this sort of hand-made release since 2000 (then, with Angels of Light), and with the support of people such as yourself, have been able to record and work at a standard that would have otherwise been utterly impossible. THANK YOU, endlessly! …I also remain grateful that you – our live audience – have felt it worth your while to attend our concerts, and my hope is that you’ve experienced some of the joy we experience while playing this music. THANK YOU, again, endlessly!

Click here to see all the buying options and to purchase Not Here / Not Now.