VORTEX CITY SESSIONS: The Necks

Event information

THE NECKS

Chris Abrahams (piano)
Lloyd Swanton (bass)
Tony Buck (drums)

"one of the most extraordinary groups on the planet...not so much a trio as a revolutionary consortium redefining music... “ THE GUARDIAN

"One of the greatest bands in the world" NEW YORK TIMES

The Necks conjure music that defies description in orthodox terms. Not entirely avant-garde, nor minimalist, nor ambient, nor jazz, the music of The Necks is regularly described by press internationally as, simply, unique.

Together for over 20 years, the Australian trio has honed an assured process of building around repeated motifs through subtle shifts and layering, to produce an extraordinarily dense and hypnotic effect frequently underpinned by an insistent deep groove. As their dedicated followers know, their performances are entirely improvised consisting of two pieces evolving over around 50 minutes each and are an experience that has to be heard to be believed.

2009 and 2010 proved outstanding years for The Necks, with an invitation from Nick Cave to appear at All Tomorrows Parties, 2 performances with Brian Eno in PURE SCENIUS, a 3-concert improvised collaboration, at Sydney Opera House and Brighton Festival 2010, and major tours of US and Europe including their collaboration with Back to Back theatre group at Barbican in June 2010.

In early 2011 they toured on a double bill with Swans in Australia. Autumn will see them again touring United States, Europe and UK. The performances at Bishopsgate Institute are the first chance to see them in London since their sell-out show at the Barbican in June 2010.

Their 15th CD, the studio album “Silverwater” was released in 2010, adding to their luminous cataloque of live and studio releases which have garnered awards and fans, including the UK performance group DV8 who worked with excerpts from Drive By (2003) in their To Be Straight With You. At the time of writing (March 2011) they are back in the studio working on a new album to be released in late 2011.

"Absolutely riveting...how three musicians can sound like eighteen is a mystery... extraordinary magical sounds emerged from the ensemble...the way The Necks do this with acoustic instruments is nothing short of miraculous" FINANCIAL TIMES (UK)

In his book “The Blue Moment” Richard Williams reviews the making of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue and the development of music from that seminal point. Of The Necks he says:

“…the new music I would find it hardest to do without, fifty years after ‘Kind of Blue’, is that produced by the Necks… the Necks exploit the spaces that were opened up for them all those years ago, spaces in harmony, rhythm and melody, but also spaces in the mind”

"Tonal, accessible, and yet profoundly challenging... The Necks are singular... Yielding things no one else does" THE WIRE



Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, City of London, Greater London EC2M 4QH