The first we heard about the Swanlights CD/book was back in February when I spoke with Antony about his trip to Japan/the completion of The Crying Light cycle. A bit later we reported you can get the collection in regular form and as a special edition that packs the CD inside a 144-page book along with Hegarty’s paintings, collages, photography, and writing. (As far as non-book enticements, the album-only version includes “Flétta,” a duet with Björk.) We’re told the album/book “are a continuation of Antony’s work exploring his connection to the natural world” and that, sonically, we can expect “strange percussive elements, John Cale-esque string drones, heavily distorted guitars and symphonic winds and strings thread[ing] the song cycle together.” As far as the visual, take a look at a couple of the book’s images while you look over the tracklist (one above, another below).

Swanlights:

01 “Everything Is New”
02 “The Great White Ocean
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03 “Ghost”
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4 “I’m In Love”
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5 “Violetta”
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6 “Swanlights”
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7 “The Spirit Was Gone”
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8 “Thank You For Your Love
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09 ”Flétta (Feat. Björk)
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10 “Salt Silver Oxygen”
11 “Christina’s Farm”

Swanlights is out 10/12 via Secretly Canadian. Abrams Image will simultaneously publish the special edition. Another image here:

The press release blurb re: the book:

The Swanlights book is a collection of thought-provoking paintings, drawings, collages, photography, and writings. Dreamlike and often bleakly environmental, Antony depicts a natural and spiritual world under siege. Much of the work aches with a forlorn romanticism. In some pieces, the artist draws together fragments of the past, the present and the future to create a ghostly sense of omniscience. One image features a portrait of the artist with his great grandmother’s face projected upon his own, creating a ricochet through time and genealogy.  Found images of natural landscapes are stained with scrawls of ink, indicating invisible presence and movement. Some pieces are more conceptual; in “Cut Away The Bad,” the artist removes corrupted elements in an attempt to restore balance.  In pieces like “I Want To Help” Antony sews a torn landscape back together with a magical intent.

In other Antony-related news, he and I recently initiated a dialogue about CocoRosie.