Country : Australia Label : Northern Spy Genres and styles : Free Improvisation / Jazz Year : 2020

Three

· by Michel Rondeau

The Necks is an Australian band that celebrates its 33 years of existence this year. Although they use classical instrumentation such as piano, double bass and drums, their music is anything but conventional. Indeed, the trio has become known in concert for its long improvisations – generally lasting about 50 minutes – which slowly evolve according to repetitive motifs and gradually transform themselves organically. Totally in tune with the moment, the musicians follow the music as much as they feed it, and it takes them into sometimes astonishing territories. 

The band’s studio recordings are quite different. Although improvisation plays an important role and their duration is generally about the same as that of the live pieces, the studio work allows the tracks to be stacked up and to elaborate a dense and complex multi-leveled ensemble. This is the case with this album, which includes three pieces of about 20 minutes each.

With the first one, no preliminaries, we are immediately immersed in the heat of the action. In the heat of the moment. The material is dense. To its basic palette and hectic percussion, the trio adds organ, synthesizer and electric guitars whose lines criss-cross the space. Around three-quarters of the way through, it intensifies a notch, we reach a plateau, then in the last minutes, a slow decrescendo takes place. All along, the waves are so saturated that, strangely enough, it’s when everything stops that you can best distinguish matters, as if you could then see the music in cross-section, some of its constituent elements, like the fuzz of the guitar.

The second tracks is in a way the antithesis of the first. Here, it is space and silence that are highlighted by cymbals and scattered, well reverberated notes, triangle tinkling and echo effects. One floats in a state of weightlessness in some intersidereal space. Then, in the third, we find ourselves on terra firma, moving softly at the pace of a deliciously swaying groove.

A good vintage from the trio, and an excellent starting point in its own way.

Latest 360 Content

Suoni: The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

Suoni: The Spiritual Quest, The End in Transcendence

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Thundercat, A Feline on The Loose

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston Exposed

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | Branford Marsalis Among Four MF’s Playin’ Tunes… Live!

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | About Derrick Hodge’s Idea of the Color of Noize

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Queen of Afrobeats, Ayra confirms her status as a Global… Starr

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

FIJM | Black Jazz by Marquis Hill

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea: being marketwise

Festival de Lanaudière | Leonardo Garcia Alarcon/Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea: being marketwise

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

FIJM | Nate Smith and his Supremely Talented Quartet

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Tyrane Mondeny Presents Her Mandingo Soul

Nuits d’Afrique 2025 | Tyrane Mondeny Presents Her Mandingo Soul

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM | Nai Palm? Creature of Exception! Hawa B? Future Star!

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM 2025 | Funky funky, Trombone Shorty

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM | Nubya Garcia Becomes a Star in MTL

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

FIJM 2025 | Symphonic Avishai Cohen: Bewitching magic

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island

Common Holly – Anything glass

Common Holly – Anything glass

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM I Hanorah Sets the TD Stage Ablaze with Soulful R&B

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist

FIJM | Jeff Goldblum: Storyteller, Comedian and Pianist

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

FIJM I Still Taking Us There, Mavis Staples Electrifies Montreal JazzFest

FIJM | Gabriella Olivo, Musical Journey in Three Languages

FIJM | Gabriella Olivo, Musical Journey in Three Languages

FIJM | Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique

FIJM | Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – Ventre Unique

Fantastic Negrito – Son of A Broken Man

Fantastic Negrito – Son of A Broken Man

Cumbia, Chaos, and Resistance: Empanadas Illegales Bring the Heat to Montreal Jazz Fest

Cumbia, Chaos, and Resistance: Empanadas Illegales Bring the Heat to Montreal Jazz Fest

Turnstile – Never Enough

Turnstile – Never Enough

Subscribe to our newsletter