We Are Him is the fifth album from Angels Of Light, the vehicle for Michael Gira since he disbanded his Swans in 1997. The album was recorded and produced by Gira at Trout Recording and Seizure's Palace studios in Brooklyn with Akron/Family laying down some initial basic tracks which were then fleshed out by an extensive cast of characters including many old friends and some new ones; it was mixed at Trout. We Are Him is released on Young God Records August 20.

With We Are Him Gira's achieved yet another high point in a career filled with musical achievements, any one of which would count as the attainment of a lifetime for anyone else (Swans’ Children Of God, Cop, Soundtracks For the Blind). The first two Angels Of Light albums New Mother and How I Loved You saw Gira exploring subtle, more nuanced songwriting and the influence of primitive American rural music as well as lush, natural orchestrations. On the third, Everything Is Good Here/ Please Come Home he added an enormous feral wallop to the proceedings. 2005’s Other People found him mastering more melodic, some might even say “poppy” writing (collaborating with Akron/Family) and while We Are Him similarly boasts strong tunes Michael’s upped the ante precipitously in terms of sonic innovation and brute visceral power to yield yet another masterpiece.

Sessions were undertaken with Gira’s customary vow to keep things simple…and he failed yet again, gloriously! He began recording with Akron/Family as backing band. Basic tracks were done in a week with Akron/Family providing drums, bass, guitar, piano and backing vocals. Then Michael started calling in a series of collaborators, mainly long time friends, to help develop the material conceptually and add sonic muscle, with the different musicians working on several tracks in turn. All these players were of invaluable help building up the orchestrations with Gira guiding the process, but soliciting their creative contributions actively.

First, Christoph Hahn (a past member of Swans and several Angels incarnations) played his usual stellar "kraut-abilly" electric guitar stylings, as well as open-tuned lap steel. Then Bill Rieflin (Swans, Ministry, Robert Fripp, Robyn Hitchcock, and currently drummer with REM) added Hammond B3 organ, Moog synthesizer, electric guitar, bass guitar, drums/percussion, piano, casio, and backing vocals. Eszter Balint performed drone-based parts on violin, injecting feel through inflection and modulation; she also added some backing vocals. Next, Julia Kent (Antony and The Johnsons) on cello and Paul Cantelon (arranger and soundtrack composer) on violin created multi-tracked string sections, arranging “on the fly.” This pair showed an uncanny knack for turning vague descriptions and out-of-tune humming into something musical and fully realized.