DRAWINGS: The Necks with Evan Parker at Cafe Oto (EFG LJF 2015)

A quick summary of my take on this rather wonderful evening:

The combined mastery and cumulative power of The Necks with Evan Parker was quite something. Two intense sets where the Australian trio and their guest didn't put a foot, a breath or a finger wrong. Delving deep, they shaped rolling waves of sound with hypnotic concentration – a tightrope balance in a state of meditational complexity which shimmered and resonated with industrial strength.

Yet it was the indirect allusions to natural forces which perhaps made the strongest impression. Mild crafted tremors gave way to the slow melt of a glacial mass and the humid claustrophobias of tropical vegetation. There was something, too, of the magic of Prospero's isle with breakaways to hidden shadows, eclipses and jewel-like micro-pastures.

The first set had the spirit and overwhelming momentum of Coltrane's 'Ascension' at its heart with Parker wresting intricate layers and repetitions on soprano sax that Abrahams echoed and escalated in rumbling chordal and scalar piano explorations. The second built on the first, hovering, roaring, diving and trickling, and ending on the passage of breaths with which Parker had initiated the set.

A very special event, indeed. Swanton said it had been 'a great honour and privilege' for The Necks to be playing with Evan Parker, and it was evident in the quality of the playing throughout that the feeling was mutual. The ensuing and enduring whole did indeed transcend the formidable sum of the parts.

1 reply »

Geoff Winston says:

18 November 2015 at 11:24 pm

A quick summary of my take on this rather wonderful evening:

The combined mastery and cumulative power of The Necks with Evan Parker was quite something. Two intense sets where the Australian trio and their guest didn't put a foot, a breath or a finger wrong. Delving deep, they shaped rolling waves of sound with hypnotic concentration – a tightrope balance in a state of meditational complexity which shimmered and resonated with industrial strength.

Yet it was the indirect allusions to natural forces which perhaps made the strongest impression. Mild crafted tremors gave way to the slow melt of a glacial mass and the humid claustrophobias of tropical vegetation. There was something, too, of the magic of Prospero's isle with breakaways to hidden shadows, eclipses and jewel-like micro-pastures.

The first set had the spirit and overwhelming momentum of Coltrane's 'Ascension' at its heart with Parker wresting intricate layers and repetitions on soprano sax that Abrahams echoed and escalated in rumbling chordal and scalar piano explorations. The second built on the first, hovering, roaring, diving and trickling, and ending on the passage of breaths with which Parker had initiated the set.

A very special event, indeed. Swanton said it had been 'a great honour and privilege' for The Necks to be playing with Evan Parker, and it was evident in the quality of the playing throughout that the feeling was mutual. The ensuing and enduring whole did indeed transcend the formidable sum of the parts.