This news item is reproduced directly from a supplied media release
World famous improvising legends and one of Australia’s great cult bands THE NECKS return home for their much-anticipated annual Australian tour. Renowned for creating immersive, hypnotic concert experiences over two completely improvised one-hour sets, Chris Abrahams (piano), Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Tony Buck (drums/percussion) slowly conjure sound mountains out of thin air that leave audiences mesmerised.
From humble beginnings over a quarter of a century ago as a private jamming project, The Necks now count Brian Eno and Nick Cave among their many fans. They have released 16 albums and have played packed concerts everywhere from the Sydney Opera House to The Barbican in London and Roulette in New York. More recently, in 2012, they completed two tours of Europe and the UK, garnering outstanding UK reviews from The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Financial Times, with The Telegraph’s Ivan Hewitt describing ‘A vast sound-mass suspended in vibrating, seething stillness, its colour and luminosity changing slowly, like a landscape observed from a car…’.
2012 also saw The Necks’ album AETHER added to The Australian National Registry of Recorded Sound, and their legendary first album SEX re-released through FUSE.
The Necks’ commitment to the simple concept of truly ‘letting the music take care of itself’ is at the core of their unique sound and their ability to constantly create exciting, engrossing music for themselves and their audiences. No two Necks concerts are ever the same.
‘It’s important that we don’t know where the music is going to go,’says drummer Tony Buck. ‘By the time we’re well into a piece, it’s really hard to imagine even how it got there from where it started.’ Bassist Lloyd Swanton says ‘There’s a state I reach while playing with The Necks, of complete emptiness, where the music is flowing through you and you just have no sense of self at all. I think that’s probably a fantastic state for people to listen to you in. It’s certainly a great state to be in.’
Long-term fans of this unique band come back time and again for their annual fix, but if you haven’t heard them before, come along and find out why The New York Times described them as ‘one of the greatest bands in the world’.
Full details at www.thenecks.com
Tour information
Tues 29 – Thu 31 Jan Corner Hotel, MELBOURNE www.cornerhotel.com
Sun 3 Feb Governor Hindmarsh, ADELAIDE www.thegov.com.au
Wed 6 Feb Byron Bay Community Centre, BYRON BAY, NSW www.byroncentre.com.au
Thur 7 Feb Brisbane Powerhouse, BRISBANE www.brisbanepowerhouse.org
Sun 10 Feb Lizotte’s, NEWCASTLE, NSW www.newcastle.lizottes.com.au/live
Wed 13 Feb & Thu 14 Feb The Basement, SYDNEY www.thebasement.com.au
Fri 22 Mar Castlemaine Festival CASTLEMAINE, VIC www.castlemainefestival.com.au
Sat 23 Mar The Street Theatre, CANBERRA www.thestreet.org.au
