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Archives: Unfold

2017 15 Mrz

The aspect of nature

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Michael,

thanks for the question.

The Necks, when performing live, never discuss beforehand what will happen. Our music, in the live performance, is never prescribed – verbally or otherwise; it “discovers” itself while being made by us and we, in turn, respond. To set out to try and fulfil a stated “aim” would result in music very different to “Necks’” music.

This is relevant because Unfold resembles, possibly more than any of our other “studio” albums, a live approach. That’s not to say that certain “traits” don’t come to the fore (certain methods that appear frequently in other Necks’ pieces), but these “traits” reside in a deep, non-verbal layer of the group’s methodology. I certainly don’t deny that landscape and nature play an important part in what it is we are trying to express, but exactly how this happens is largely a mystery.

I don’t set out to mimic or sonically construct particular settings in nature. Having said that, I believe there is a strong connection between the seemingly repetitive and gradually modulating nature of much of Australia’s landscape and the music we make. I also see that there is a connection between myself (and other members of the group) having grown up on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and the aesthetic choices I (we) make.

Chris (The Necks)

2017 9 Mrz

Another kind of wilderness

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It’s a dream world, and it’s a jungle. The working methods change as do the places to be. As I said, we’re in the jungle this time, and it’s not mighty. Not mighty at all. More Walt Whitman than Walt Disney. They are three, but they sound like a tribe on this double album, vinyl only. Every side of UNFOLD covers one original composition, and as different as they are, from mood and air and heat, it’s still and always jungle time. Everyone will get lost there, get lost in his own favourite undergrowth, favourite power spot and favourite outpost. The percussion man seems like a bunch of percussionists. Branches and leaves and squelchy rain drumming. The keyboards can easily be drowned in these textures of high density, but a clearing is going to happen from time to time. The bass is a bass in the wilderness, sends signals, heartbeats, and farewells. Those searching do not always find, but THE NECKS discover a lot in their thrilling modus operandi of getting, well, lost, turning the old piano trio format upside down again and again. I asked Chris Abrahams about his inspirations, the working process in the studio, the mixing. A kind of introduction into the adventurous world of a band that never fails to surprise.

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Chris Abrahams speaking

 


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