After the great success of the melancholic-behaved predecessors "I'm A Bird Now" and "The Crying Light", the focus of the fourth album of the New Yorker-by-choice Antony Hegarty is on expansive arrangements. Electrified string pads, pointed percussion, ornamental wind figures and even distorted guitars are what distinguish "Swanlights" from previous works in its urgency. Already the programmatic "Everything Is New" stands for a more intense overall sound: a simple piano melody is here put into feverish tension for minutes by driven arrangements. The title track also transports the listener into an unfamiliar dark mirror landscape of delirious guitars. A special highlight, however, is the intimate duet "Flétta" recorded with Björk. After sold-out concerts and chart placements, as well as performances in major opera houses and with world-famous symphony orchestras, Hegarty and his band no longer have to prove it to anyone. It is precisely this freedom that drives them to the very highest heights on "Swanlights".