ANYBODY who has had even a fleeting experience of Swans’ music may not associate it with the word “love”.

Yet, this is the abstract term frontman Michael Gira has said he is always striving towards as he dissolves the current line-up.

Gira is the driving force behind the New York group, who formed in 1982 and can be roughly characterised by longform guitar drones and low, rumbling vocals.

Frequently, and especially in the group’s early output, this makes for deeply immersive yet punishing listening. Gira and his supporting cast summon images of post-apocalyptic wastelands. On new album The Glowing Man, the singer at one point rails against a “Jesus feeler, zombie sucker, zombie healer, monster eater”.

There is a spiritual aspect to it, though, and watching the current six members of Swans creating vast sonic tapestries together doubtlessly has connotations of communion and harmony. Gira once refers to himself as “the conductor” in our interview and there is an orchestral dynamic to the Swans approach, too.

Gira referenced the idea of communion in a statement announcing The Glowing Man would be the last record from this incarnation of the group.

Reflecting on rebooting Swans in 2009, he said: “I chose the five people with whom to work that I believed would most ably provide a sense of surprise, and even uncertainty, while simultaneously embodying the strength and confidence to ride the river of intention that flows from the heart of the sound wherever it would lead us – and what’s the intention? LOVE!”

Asked to elaborate on this quest in his music, Gira says: “I look at it as an act of generosity, of giving yourself up. When the music reaches its height, that’s what it is, love. It’s not hippy 1960s love, but that’s how I define it.”

While some might see self-sabotage in Gira’s decision to split up a group that has recorded four well-reviewed albums since 2010, the frontman is adamant that in order to evolve artistically he must rotate his cast.

“You know, being an old punk rocker, if you become too familiar with your surroundings it’s time to jump off a bridge and see what happens.” On a more human level, will he be sad to part ways with bandmates he has worked and toured with relentlessly since the turn of the decade?

“Of course. We’re probably closer with each other than our respective wives at this point.”

When the first version of Swans emerged in the early 1980s they were bracketed with fellow New Yorkers Sonic Youth and the so-called No Wave sub-genre, on the basis they made experimental, often visceral music.

They subverted ideas about what rock music had to be by taking the apparent unwanted debris of a song – grinding guitar feedback, for instance – and using it to drive their sound. Off the back of New Wave, and the polished pop songs of Blondie and The Cars, this made for radical, intense listening.

Gira says that he does not miss that exciting time at all, however, at least not his life around the music.

“No, of course not. I’m not denigrating that time but it would be stupid to be too attached to it. It was an age of becoming musically so in that sense it was pivotal. But as far as being nostalgic for it, God no. There were many times I didn’t have enough money to eat.”

In many ways it feels like Swans are rather out on their own nowadays as a heavy, experimental group with a relative degree of popularity. Does he ever miss the days when his group were more a part of a community of forward-thinking bands?

“I always tried to distance myself from a sense of community,” he replies. “It was probably unwise from a career point of view. But I just thought, ‘this is my life, my work’.”

Going back further still, Gira experienced a remarkable childhood. Travelling all over the world as a teenager, he once spent three and a half months in a prison in Israel. He denies that any of this background finds its way into his music now but he says the jail time taught him an existential lesson.

“When you’re in jail, time becomes a weight – it’s incredibly unforgiving. I learned how valuable the time we have as humans is.”

Regardless of what Gira does next, it seems he will always be guided by the impalpable “force” that he identifies as the power behind his music.

“When the sound itself is breathing of its own accord and is guiding us, rather than the reverse, well...that’s quite a special experience.”

Swans, Concorde 2, Madeira Drive, Brighton, Saturday, October 8, 5.30pm, call 01273 673311