Recording for Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards took place between June and August 2010[2][3] and the title was announced on August 20.[3] A podcast of each track was put up on Satriani's official Facebook profile and YouTube channel leading up to the album's release,[4] with "Light Years Away" being released as a free MP3 single download on September 7, 2010 in exchange for the customer advertising it in a Facebook post or Twitter tweet.[5] Two bonus tracks, "Heartbeat" and "Longing", were made available through Best Buy and Napster.[6]
Touring began in Europe from October to November, followed by North America in December to January 2011.[7]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine at AllMusic gave Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards three stars out of five, calling it "a mature work from one of the great rock guitarists" and "pure guitar prog, filled with compressed boogies, sci-fi synths, exotic flourishes, and all of Satch's phasers and flangers in full-tilt overdrive."[1]
The album reached No. 45 on the U.S. Billboard 200[8] and remained on that chart for two weeks,[9] as well as reaching the top 100 in ten other countries.[10]
^"Top Stranih [Top Foreign]" (in Croatian). Top Foreign Albums. Hrvatska diskografska udruga. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100". ČNS IFPI. Note: On the chart page, select 201042 on the field besides the word "Zobrazit", and then click over the word to retrieve the correct chart data. Retrieved 2015-07-15.
