The Necks @ Berghain Berlin | Wednesday, 19.03.2014

Another standout event from this years Maerz Musik programme is a performance by The Necks at Berghain. The experimental jazz trio play improvisational pieces of up to an hour in length that explore the development and demise of repeating musical figures.

The Necks | Silver Water
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=8QuhUwa0ETY

Typically a live performance will begin very quietly with one of the musicians playing a simple figure. One by one, the other two will join with their own contributions—all three players independent yet intertwined. As the ‘piece’ builds through subtle micro-changes, the interaction of their instruments creates layers of harmonics and prismatic washes of sound that lead some to apply the genre label ‘trance jazz’. Their live performances can be challenging for those expecting a conventional musical experience.

The Necks | Open
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=9O93_RITXGU

The Australian trio The Necks is among the most advanced improvised music formations to encounter. Especially in Berlin, the exceedingly fertile turf of real-time music, which was established in the 1990s. What pianist Chris Abrahams, drummer Tony Buck and bassist Lloyd Swanton conjure on stage can hardly be described in words. Their music is hypnotizing; the audience perceives the hour-long works as a labyrinth-like, never-ending dream.

The Necks | Drive By
httpv://https://youtube.com/watch?v=nqc0LrLq8IM

“Open”, their youngest CD production, is viewed as a masterpiece by those encountering improvised music with open ears. The seeming simplicity of their music is based on a process in which a complex sound carpet gradually unfolds from a single musical entity both continuously and sometimes barely noticeably until it peaks at the highest intensity. They captivate the listeners every moment they play with the charming groove that accompanies it. Neither entirely avant-garde nor minimal, neither ambient nor solely experimental jazz: The Necks’ music is an exception, a jewel in contemporary music.