Tracce e Sentieri

• Guelph

• Pop Will Eat Himself

• Ne avevo già parlato qui

• Jazz Minimal

Reviewed by Andy Gill
Thursday, 29 May 2008

For many years, north-east London's most welcoming bohemian outpost, The Vortex, used to operate from a small upper room in Stoke Newington, before moving to its current location in an even smaller upper room in nearby Dalston. Tonight, the tiny space is packed to the rafters – or rather, to the ceiling's hi-tech exposed girders and air-conditioning conduits. The latter don't seem all that effective against the combined humidity of a roomful of people – in fact, it appears as if most of the patrons have passed out with heat exhaustion, their eyes closed and mouths slightly agape.

But every now and then a hand will raise a bottle, or a head nod rhythmically, subtle proofs of consciousness careful not to puncture the delicate meniscus of sound created by The Necks. Even the band themselves play most of the set with their eyes shut, focusing on the music in order to pick up and develop the minutiae of each others' parts, pianist Chris Abrahams and drummer Tony Buck poised like hovering hawks over their respective instruments while bassist Lloyd Swanton uses his slim, elegant double bass for support as he sways to the rolling waves of sound.

To describe The Necks as an improvising jazz trio is something of a misnomer: improvised jazz so often resembles a battle, each player striving to impress – or, in the classic tradition of "cutting contests", outdo each other in skill, complexity and imagination. But although The Necks have no shortfall in any of these categories, they have managed to subsume their individual ambitions to the collective aim, in a manner which has clearly taken years of interaction to perfect.

Tonight's two sets are typical: the first opens with an unhurried piano motif repeated over a yawning monotone of bowed bass, gradually becoming more florid, like a flurry of snowflakes building into a blizzard – an impression heightened by Buck's sleigh-bells and temple-bells. One could be in a Himalayan monastery, watching the sky turn ever whiter through a frosty susurrus of cymbals, while Swanton conjures a billowing cumulus of bass.

The second set builds up more of a propulsive groove, although the Himalayas are still brought close by the squeak and rattle of Buck's opening percussive figure, which resembles the steady creaking of a Tibetan prayer-wheel. Save for a microphone glitch that sends harsh noise reverberating through a few seconds of the first set, both pieces are mesmeric, luminous delights, exactly the chilled refreshment required to stave off the evening humidity.

in www.independent.co.uk/

The Necks

Lloyd Swanton, Contrabbasso
Tony Buck, Batteria
Chris Abrahams, Piano e tastiere

Sito dei The Necks

Dischi:

GUELPH, at The Factory, Sidney, 2008

POP WILL EAT HIMSELF, at The Factory, Sidney, 2008

TOWNSVILLE, 2007

CHEMIST, 2006

AT BONDI PAVILLON THEATRE, SIDNEY, 2005

MOSQUITO, 2004

SEE THROUGH, 2004

DRIVE BY, 2003

PHOTOSYNTHETIC, 2003

HOMEBUSH, at Musikschule Raab, Austria, 2001

AETHER, 2001

RAAB, at Musikschule Raab, Austria, 2001

ATHENAEUM, at Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne, 2001

HANGING GARDENS, 1999

PIANO BASS DRUM - UNHEARD, 1998

THE BOYS, Music for the feature film The Boys, 1998

SILENT NIGHT - Black, 1996

SILENT NIGHT - White, 1996

AQUATIC, 1994

NEXT, 1990

SEX, 1989

Drive By è un pezzo unico di circa 60 minuti. Una scultura musicale sostenuta dal tappeto sonoro della batteria di Tony Buck. Non ricordo altro drumming di così grande bravura per precisione e ritmo. La musica sembra appartenere al genere del minimalismo. Ma non è solo così: è continuamente attraversata da altri inserti sonori. Come voci di bambini, lampi notturni, rintocchi acustici, armonie da contrabbasso. La ricorsività e talvolta monotonia del minimalismo qui è vivificata dalla improvvisazione

La musica procede per sottrazione ed estensione. Talvolta Tony Buck è lasciato da solo a tenere l’opera (perché di grande opera d’arte si tratta!), ma poi di nuovo riprendono l’interplay.
Impossibile non essere ipnotizzati da questa musica.
Forse, senza particolari intenzioni terapeutiche, i Necks intercettano le onde cerebrali. Questa esperienza sonora si conclude, infine con una notte stellata in cui cantano i grilli. Le chiusure sono tanto importanti come le entrate. Ma qui siamo al massimo. Sono 10 secondi di vera magia. Chiunque ami non solo ascoltare musica, ma entrare in uno spazio musicale esperienziale non perda i Necks e cominci pure da Drive By. Ma poi cerchi tutti gli altri loro dischi. Ascoltateli: è una esperienza musicale straordinaria. Sembra di stare in uno spazio fatto di note.
O meglio, come dice Dyer, "è musica che contiene lo spazio che attraversa".

in DeBaser

In many ancient cultures music is a tool for trance. Repeated figures, varied ever-so-slightly, can beckon you into a form of meditation where the outside world doesnt matter nearly as much as what lies within. Traditional drumming from Ghana, for example, centers itself around rituals relating to birth, spirits, and death. Westerners absorbed this idea in a very ass-backward way when modern classical composers like Steve Reich incorporated minimalism into a framework of repetition. The idea has been taken further by post-rock groups like Tortoise, who make use of studio tools to get it just right.

The Australian group known as The Necks takes advantage of both approaches: marathon cycles of riffs and beats frame intermittent piano swirls, found sound samples, and electronic effects. Drummer Tony Buck serves as the locomotive for this trio, laying down a direct and straightforward groove that persists more than an hour. The title track is the only track on Drive By, so you have to admire the concentration required. If you're not willing to be hypnotized by this music, chances are youll find it highly annoying or turn your attention elsewhere. Thats your choice, but I strongly recommend surrender.
 

All of these three instruments (piano/organ, bass, and drums) have the potential to be a percussion instrument, and most of the time that seems to be their primary function. (Acoustic) bassist Lloyd Swanton lays down the most deceptively simple parts of the intertwined whole, often four-note riffs syncopated with snare hits and keyboard figures. The rhythms come in units of three, four, six, and seven, often directly juxtaposed, but you wouldnt necessarily know that unless you screwed on a thinking cap.

The jazz element on Drive By mostly comes from the keys of Chris Abrahams user-friendly organ and pedalled piano. To the extent this music has a melody, youll find it there. But short phrases, swirls, and gentle cascades comprise just about all of it, and in the end their role is more to serve as color and accent for the pulsating whole.

Apparently this group performs this sort of heavy-duty hyponosis live, which requires an act of utter submission and the sort of intuitive understanding that transcends conscious thought. But this studio effort is most effective in its own right: a magnetic document that favors understatement over excess, introspection over extroversion. A psychedelic trip of the highest order.

 The latest effort by Australia's super trio the Necks is a darkly swirling journey into sound that encompasses jazz, rock, and hypnotic grooves, all organically played without loops or samples, to brilliant effect. Like a mirror image of Manuel Gottsching's classic E2-E4, Drive By is one long track -- over 60 minutes. It unfolds gradually. Chris Abrahams keyboards create the pulse that is gradually taken over by Lloyd Swanton's bassline. It's less than a handful of notes that creates the effect, but the layering of Tony Buck's drumming, and Abrahams multi-textured keyboards over the framework, is positively mind-bending, this is only ten minutes into the piece! The dynamic is controlled and channeled through the middle, keeping the vibe of the piece moody, dark, and full of a controlled menace that gives way to a dreamy, shimmering gloss of ether and darkness. Great washes of synth sound come undulating through the backdrop intermittently, organ riffs course in contrapuntal rhythmic lines against Buck's ever prominent bassline, and a piano slithers through almost imperceptibly, as its seemingly random placement is off-kilter and ever surprising. The sense of relaxed ambivalence grows exponentially in the listener, though very gradually. By the time it ends, there is nothing but a mantra of excess for the pulse itself, and a warped sense of time and space echoing in the listening room, pervading every surface inner, outer, and secret. Sleep isn't recommended, though an overwhelming sense of dream prevails. This is a remarkable, resoundingly brilliant album: that from such restraint so much flows. There are literally nuanced sonic universes contained here, all of them subtle, all of them uncoiling with elegance and steamy tension; they give way to a release that is unmentionably beautiful and seductively sinister.

By 2003, the three members of Australia's unclassifiable Necks were playing together only a couple of times a year. But the group is still releasing new music, as borne out by Drive By, yet another one hour-long slowly-unfolding chamber piece that relies on both minimalist repetition and jazz improvisation for its dreamy ambience and fluent dynamics.

If 2002's Hanging Gardens was lively and virulent, and the previous year's Aether was pure understated bliss, Drive By can be said to be the perfect encounter of Miles Davis, Terry Riley and Brian Eno. With a stronger sense of the groove than its predecessor (and a touch of African polyrhythm), the amalgam of Tony Buck's tribal drums, Lloyd Swanton's repetitive bass lines and Chris Abrahams' wavering piano meditations is a classic of casual conversation.

It almost sounds like the counterpart to Soft Machine's sixth album, which, starting from similar premises, accomplished much more austere and geometric structures. The keyboards are absolute protagonists, yielding the totality of the piece's diversity, with occasional peaks of pathos. As usual, the meaning is as cryptic as a summer breeze.

Halfway into the track (at 27 minutes), children are heard playing in the background, and the delicate timbres of the piano seem to engage in some kind of counterpoint (while a distorted organ whines on top of it); and at 48 minutes the music is invaded by a loud buzzing sound, as of thousands of bees, and other animal-sounding noises, while the tempo gets funkier, until the music dissolves and only chirping birds are left.

The only drawback compared with its predecessor is that somehow the textures do not achieve the same sense of otherworldiness. The process is, in a sense, too obvious for the spectator to be hypnotized by the clockwork.

http://www.nudeasthenews.com/reviews/1139

Australian instrumental trio the Necks have been called everything from Krautrock copyists to Philip Glass minimalists, but whatever their slowly revolving music implies, these masterful musicians sound like no one else. Over their seven album career the Necks have followed a consistent approach of single track, hour-long recordings marked only by very subtle changes that result in music that is profound, clever and confounding. Is this jewel-like music created for a predawn ritual of sex and sorcery? Or is it Aussie space rock recorded somewhere in the Outback as shooting stars and dope trails light up the sky?

The 60:17 long Drive By follows the Necks’ highly acclaimed live recording, Athenaeum, Homebush, Quay & Raab. The arrangements remain the same: Chris Abrahams’s twinkling keyboards create a lone four-note melody which is slowly joined by Tony Buck’s pulsing drums, the pair then enveloped by Lloyd Swanton’s subliminal, rumbling bass lines. Buck’s drums affect the most change, morphing from tribal patterns to hypnotic, tom-laced loops to edgy funk overlays. Abrahams adds incidental swirls of acoustic piano, organ, and sound effects that range from buzzing helicopter blades to apocalyptic explosions. Not only does Drive By create a numbing, surreal atmosphere like a hit of quality codeine, it easily holds your attention with the subtlest of elements. Drum rhythms peak, build and subside, odd sounds move from left to right, all without seeming purpose or obvious direction. It’s like staring at a deep blue sky for an hour with only fluffy clouds and bumblebees to embellish the view until a sinister UFO streaks across the horizon, leaving you anxious and excited. Drive By freezes time and invades your mind.

Thom Jurek, All Music Guide

The latest effort by Australia's super trio the Necks is a darkly swirling journey into sound that encompasses jazz, rock, and hypnotic grooves, all organically played without loops or samples, to brilliant effect. Like a mirror image of Manuel Gottsching's classic E2-E4, Drive By is one long track -- over 60 minutes. It unfolds gradually. Chris Abrahams keyboards create the pulse that is gradually taken over by Lloyd Swanton's bassline. It's less than a handful of notes that creates the effect, but the layering of Tony Buck's drumming, and Abrahams multi-textured keyboards over the framework, is positively mind-bending, this is only ten minutes into the piece! The dynamic is controlled and channeled through the middle, keeping the vibe of the piece moody, dark, and full of a controlled menace that gives way to a dreamy, shimmering gloss of ether and darkness. Great washes of synth sound come undulating through the backdrop intermittently, organ riffs course in contrapuntal rhythmic lines against Buck's ever prominent bassline, and a piano slithers through almost imperceptibly, as its seemingly random placement is off-kilter and ever surprising. The sense of relaxed ambivalence grows exponentially in the listener, though very gradually. By the time it ends, there is nothing but a mantra of excess for the pulse itself, and a warped sense of time and space echoing in the listening room, pervading every surface inner, outer, and secret. Sleep isn't recommended, though an overwhelming sense of dream prevails. This is a remarkable, resoundingly brilliant album: that from such restraint so much flows. There are literally nuanced sonic universes contained here, all of them subtle, all of them uncoiling with elegance and steamy tension; they give way to a release that is unmentionably beautiful and seductively sinister.

The Necks

Chris Abrahams, Piano e tastiere
Tony Buck, Batteria
Lloyd Swanton, Contrabbasso

Sito dei The Necks

La musica che ho sempre cercato e che, nel gennaio 2006 ho finalmente trovato. Come i tesori delle terre sconosciute.

Nella storia del Jazz spesso si legge che, nei momenti di svolta, gli appassionati ascoltatori dicevano "c'è uno che suona in modo nuovo" e correvano a sentirlo. E' avvenuto per Louis Armstrong, che con West End Blues (1929) innovava nel Jazz di New Orleans. E ancora con le orchestre di Duke Ellington. Poi con il Bebop di Charlie Parker. Con The Birth of Cool di Miles Davis. E ancora con Olè di Coltrane. E ancora con il Jazz nordico di Garbarek. Ma sono molte le svolte.

Ci sono vari modi, non incompatibili, per suonare il Jazz: quello degli Standard (e si può farlo in modo mirabile come il Trio di Keith Jarrett), quello della tradizione (come continua a fare con encomiabile coerenza Winton Marsalis), quello della rielaborazione del Pop (in Italia ricordo Danilo Rea e i Doctor 3). E ancora altri.

Ma oggi la nuova frontiera la stanno percorrendo i Necks, un gruppo australiano che lavora da 15 anni e che persegue con ammirevole coerenza un progetto musicale unico. Di loro si dice:

"Entirely new and entirely now. They produce a post-jazz, post-rock, post-everything sonic experience that has few parallels or rivals" (da The Guardian)

I Necks hanno qualche precursore, ma pochi imitatori. Il loro è Jazz minimale, è Post-Jazz, è Post-Tutto, come di loro dice Geoff Dyer. 

Certo sembra stupefacente che è dall'Australia che arrivino questi esploratori psichici della musica Jazz. Ma pensando a Picnic ad Hanging Rock di Peter Weir non è poi così strano.

Forse gli australiani sanno mettere bene assieme modernità, ambiente incontaminato e sogno.

Questo è il brano dell'articolo che me li ha fatti conoscere:

Questa recensione di Geoff Dyer dei The Necks ha attivato una mia febbrile ricerca di questi musicisti australiani.

E con le connessioni della rete sono arrivato al sito www.debaser.it, dove ho trovato questa bella memoria dell'organizzatore della casa editrice Instar:

 .... permettimi un ricordo in questa pagina, in qualche modo legato alla tua recensione. Dopo aver letto il libro di Dyer ebbi occasione di conoscere l'editore che lo pubblicò in Italia, per la Instar libri, Gianni Borgo. Era giovane, preparatissimo, attento ad ogni piccolo dettaglio e aveva una cura preziosa di ogni cosa avesse relazione con i libri che pubblicava. E naturalmentre era stato lui a lavorare alla pubblicazione di "Natura.." in prima persona. Io avevo in mente la traduzione di un romanzo di un autore spagnolo, insieme ad un'amica, e così ci incontarammo un paio di volte. Il progetto non ebbe seguito e non lo vidi più. Ho poi saputo della sua scomparsa, giunta prematura, credo nel 2000 o 2001. Anche se non esisteva alcuna forma di conoscenza, se non quella occasionale descritta, devo confessare che fui molto colpito e, in qualche modo, addolorato. Era persona gentile e seria, così appassionata del proprio lavoro. E ha asciato una casa editrice colma di ottimi titoli, con uno spirito e un'approccio davvero interessanti. Volevo ricordarlo e tributargli un saluto. In qualche modo è anche un invito ai pasanti di DeBaser ad accostarsi a quella casa editrice, magari partendo proprio da "Natura morta con custodia di sax". Scusa l'intrusione e bai bai.
Nome: Mr.NoBodyAndSOul

Conclusione: la rete Web è la più grande conquista dell'umanità  se consente anche di portare un fiore al cimitero dove riposa un paziente organizzatore della cultura. Quelle persone che vivono nell'ombra per far mettere al mondo cultura e relazioni intersoggettive. Senza Gianni Borgo nessuno in Italia avrebbe potuto leggere Geoff Dyer (e invito alla lettura delle sue opere: nei prossimi giorni organizzerò anche questa bibliografia)

Grazie a  Mr.NoBodyAndSOul, cui ho risposto:

Caro MRNOBODYANDSOUL. Nessuna intrusione la tua, ma una vera emozione. Grazie molto per il tuo ricordo per il realizzatore della casa editrice Instar Libri (quindi, per i passanti su DeBaser: Geoff Dyer, Natura morta con custodia di sax, Instar Libri, 1993). La vita umana è costellata e illuminata da questi apparentemente piccoli organizzatori che, lavorando nell'ombra, rendono possibile dare agli altri qualcosa di importante, come la bellezza artistica. E ricordarsi di loro è è una umanissima azione, come portare un fiore al cimitero. Grazie ancora

Ma poichè un sasso gettato nell'acqua genera onde e ripercussioni nello spazio ecco altri messaggi generati da Geoff Dyer e captati su www.debaser.it:

Santo cielo Mr.NB mi hai ricordato una casa editrice davvero eccellente per la cura e la qualità delle proposte. Di loro consiglio sentitamente: Vikram Chandra - Amore e Nostalgia a Bombay. Ah benvenuto ALMATEO. Recensione intrigatissima. Su iTunes di loro c'è solo un Ep di quattro brani "the Boys" e sembrano niente male davvero niente male. Bravo
gabbox

Grande giornata !!!

Mrpigeon,direttamente dall'Australia e attraverso LastFM, mi scrive:

"Thought you might be interested in the link below:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/musicdeli/stories/2008/2250134.htm

It's a full recording of one of The Necks' concerts this year"

Grazie Mrpigeon

• The Necks, at The Factory, Sidney, Marzo 2008, 46 minuti
  

The Necks are one of Australia's most unique bands, with an underground appeal that's still growing around the world some 20 years after they formed. They're an acoustic trio comprising piano, bass and drums and the players improvise pieces that evolve over long timeframes, taking their listeners into trance-like spaces where the music fluctuates minutely over time.

The group was formed by pianist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton and drummer Tony Buck as a means of exploring new possibilities for extended improvisation. They all came from strong musical backgrounds and still have individual projects away from The Necks. This group, though, has been particularly successful for them because it has crossed into a few different musical areas, and so brought dedicated audiences to the music.

A typical Necks performance will consist of one or two pieces each lasting about an hour, and that's what we'll hear in this concert -- a single work lasting about 46 minutes that builds and develops from sparse and repeated crystalline phrases into dense and dramatic full-bodied textures. There are elements of ambient, jazz and trance music in the mix but the finished product is always something else, something genuinely different and quite compelling.

This concert was recorded in March this year at The Factory during the 'places + spaces' jazz series in Sydney. As a first for The Necks and for Music Deli, you can watch the full concert via streaming video.

• Guelph   44' 16"

• Watch Part 1 (Windows Streaming, 150MB)
  

• Watch Part 1 (Real Streaming, 250MB)


• Pop Will Eat Himself   43' 34":
  

• Watch Part 2 (Windows Streaming, 150MB)
  

• Watch Part 2 (Real Streaming, 250MB)

La tipica perfomance dei The Necks pcomprende da uno o due pezzi ciascuna della durata di circa un'ora, e questo è ciò che ti senti in questo concerto - un unico lavoro della durata di circa 46 minuti che costruisce e si sviluppa da diradata e cristallina frasi ripetute in densa e drammatica corposo texture.  Non vi sono elementi di ambient, jazz e musica trance nel mix ma il prodotto finito è sempre qualcos'altro, qualcosa di veramente diverso e molto interessante.

Questo concerto è stato registrato nel marzo di quest'anno at The Factory, in Sidney, nel marzo 2008.

The Necks occupy a unique niche in contemporary music. Blending the instrumentation of a jazz piano trio with the rigorous attention to detail of minimalism, they forge a style that is both instantly recognisable and innovative. Each of their improvisations spring from small cells - rhythmic and melodic - expanding and interweaving without ever breaking out into settled music. The effect is to expose the listener to a very organic process of improvisation. A more abstract and soulful version of Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, this Australian trio are not only innovators but increasingly influential too.

Performances can resemble a journey, musical cells subtly shifting, new textures continually being added and waves of momentum released through collective crescendos. The effect can also be unsettling - apparently simple patterns will be subtly inverted, and drummer Tony Buck’s often machine-like time keeping can suddenly freeze, suspended. Undoubtedly tapping into something meta-musical, each performance has something magical and ritualistic about it.

Despite knowing the bulk of their recordings well, Monday night’s gig at The Sage, Gateshead was the first time I’ve caught them live. In the intimate setting of Hall Two, the group played two contrasting sets, both fully acoustic. The first sprang from a shimmering repetitive piano gliss, sustained and augmented over its lengthy duration by pianist Chris Abrahams. Full of overtones, it reminded me of Charlemagne Palestine’s exotica. Buck gradually worked from hand percussion to a full drum kit assault as the piece built hypnotically to the point of virtual meltdown, whilst Lloyd Swanton’s bass unsettlingly shifted the axis of this elusive improvisation. Winding the piece down with Swiss precision, their control and musical empathy was highly impressive.

The second set was something different again. Abrahams sprinkled bluesy arabesques to recall Horace Parlan or Mal Waldron over Swanton’s harmonically ambiguous drone. From there the trio once again took off on another absorbing flight, time passing by in a blur. It would have been unfair to ask a group whose performances rarely last less than an hour for an encore, though an encore would have been nice. This is the kind of music I could listen to all day, and if a way could be find to pipe it into public spaces as an alternative to ‘white noise’, the world may be a better place.

Straddling many genres – jazz, improvisation, minimalism, electronica, avant-garde –The Necks’ beguiling sounds stand out as a pinnacle of improvised music. Tying the process of improvisation to a solid aesthetic ensures there is no wasteful or dead time. The Necks are rare in this often self-indulgent form of music in that they never forget the listener – they seek to engage, not alienate. A lesson others could do well to heed.

Fred Grand
in afric pepperbird

• ascoltare jazz - the necks

• the necks  su lastFM