# Minimal tantra: “The Necks” from Australia at the Hamburg: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/12/30/minimal-tantra-the-necks-from-australia-at-the-hamburg-video/
- Published: 2017-12-30T14:00:09+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Can you play in a famous concert hall without ever having rehearsed? The Necks
from Australia do it in the Elbphilharmonie.**

Attention, this concert report is 100 percent improvised, that is, formulated without
thinking, and I put this only briefly in advance, so you will not be surprised when
reading. Articles are usually thoughtful, not this one! I put word to word, and 
there is no back, no cuts, no subsequent overdubs. In a way, you can watch me write,
and that does not necessarily have to be pleasant.

**An experiment, well, how do you get that? **

Guilt is a band that has now performed in the Elbphilharmonie without rehearsing.
Piano, double bass and drums are on stage, three older men step into the light and
go to their instruments. First of all, nothing happens. The drummer sorts his cutlery,
the bassist tunes his instrument, which he could have done before. The pianist is
sitting motionless in front of his grand piano. A fumbling-uneventful while passes.
Then nobody moves anymore.

They not only did not rehearse; they also do not know what they are going to play
now. Everything that comes now comes completely from the moment. That’s why they
are famous in Australia and on every continent, so they invited them to Hamburg,
to this most famous concert hall in the world, or at least Northern Germany, which
is sold out as always, although a few seats are available in the front third of 
the Kleines Saal because of the cold wave. If someone coughed now!

But it remains silent, and the question is, who will start from the three, because
the fact that they start all three at the same time seems to be excluded, because
it would require a sign that no one can give in a band that renounces any organization.

**Saws, saws, bells, bells**

The pianist starts with a few notes in the upper register, which he repeats repeatedly.
And this is how structure comes about: A sound may stand alone, two relate to each
other and open up a space for more notes and the other players too. The bassist 
saws with the bow on the strings, the drummer slides bells through his fingers.

So it starts, and one gives the other, the other, repeated, repeated. No melodies,
no harmonies, no rhythms, but Tremololololo, saws, saws, bells, bells, bells.

Is it possible to write a concert report without verbs? Here you have it. This music
does not jump between thirds and fifths, no themes varies. It rises on the spot 
from repetition, gluing, compaction.

Now strange things, things, saws, saws, bells, bells, rubbing, rubbing, on the drums
and the eardrums, the drummer stiff behind his pelvis, the pianist unmoved, a sounding
accountant, respect, respect, tax audit!

No pieces, no interruption, further, further, louder, louder. Unmoved, the audience,
except for those who go. Elbphilharmonie seen and bye.

![](http://img.zeit.de/kultur/musik/2017-12/elphi-wand/wide__660x371__desktop)

**What was that?**

Eventually, my attention blurs. I am in sound, in a cloud of sounds. I’m floating
inside, I’m dozing, I’m falling asleep for a while. Take a quick look at the clock,
maybe at the moment when the bass drum beats for the first time, the clock indicates
an eternity.

The music swells in minute slowness to a minimal altar, crowned by the thousand 
bosoms that tireless carpenters have milled into the wooden walls of the Small Hall,
ostensibly for the purpose of perfect sound diffusion.

**A carpenter’s fantasy or pure acoustics? **

**The thousandfold arched Saalwand**

After three quarters of an hour the Tonschwall suddenly collapses, it comes to an
organically expiring conclusion. Gosh, what was that?

“Thank goodness,” someone behind me says. He is leaving now. The three musicians
recommend themselves in the break. Then they play a piece, I think it’s not as good
as the first one. But who am I and what is good?

Afterwards they sell their music in the foyer, big demand. The bassist can barely
sip his red wine. I buy the first record they ever recorded and that was a long 
time ago, because they’ve been playing together for 31 years. The three older men
sign the album under their photo showing three young men: pianist Chris Abrahams,
bassist Lloyd Swanton, drummer Tony Buck. The plate is called sex.

![Elbphilharmonie
: The Necks aus Australien in der Hamburger Elbphilharmonie](http://
img.zeit.de/kultur/musik/2017-12/the-necks/wide__820x461__desktop)

### _Related_