Forest Swords announces album, tour and video

It's felt like a long wait, but Merseyside producer Matthew Barnes, aka Forest Swords has now revealed details of his second album. Compassion, the follow-up to 2013's acclaimed Engravings, will be released via the Ninja Tune label on 5 May, with a video for new track Arms Out also unveiled alongside details of a full European tour later this year. Watch the video in the player below.

Compassion will be followed by a series of cross-media projects, ranging from dance and performance to film and music, via Barnes' new experimental studio and record label Dense Truth. The announcement follows Barnes' experiment in sending new music direct to fans via WhatsApp earlier this week, with single The Highest Flood also released at the start of the month.

Of the album and the WhatsApp experiment, Barnes comments: "Like many, with all that's been going on since I started making the record, I've struggled to see any kind of light at the end of the tunnel, so I realised there's some sort of power in trying to create our own instead. I'm inspired by the ways we're communicating now, for better or worse, and thinking about new channels we can distribute ideas. The idea of looking for flexible future ways of expression and language, that bends to our needs quicker, really excites me."

The Arms Out video was directed by Sam Wiehl, whose visual work has also become a regular feature of Liverpool psych band Mugstar's live performances. Read the album tracklist and UK tour dates after the jump:

Compassions track list

1. War It
2. The Highest Flood
3. Panic 
4. Exalter
5. Border Margin Barrier 
6. Arms Out
7. Vandalism 
8. Sjurvival
9. Raw Language
10. Knife Edge

Forest Swords UK tour dates 2017

3/6 – Field Day, London
25/6 – Glastonbury, Pilton
14/7 – Latitude Festival, Southwold
16/10 – The Lantern, Bristol
18/10 – Village Underground, London
19/10 – The Haunt, Brighton
20/10 – Headrow House, Leeds
21/10 – Gorilla, Manchester

Ticket details: forestswords.lnk.to/tickets