[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-152521-en":3,"doc-seo-152521-105":29,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":4,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":11,"is_downloadable":11,"audit_status":11,"page_count":20,"language":21,"language_code":22,"site_id":23,"html_lang":22,"table_of_contents":24,"faqs":25,"seo_title":26,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":27,"read_time":28},152521,34359740700684,"Finn","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/1f400023980c374ae676?_k=1777273430885731487",1,"Story & Novel","City of Light - The Necks at the Opera House","Review of The Necks’ opening night at the Sydney Opera House, focusing on the ensemble’s trance-like, improvisational approach and its careful use of space, minimalism, and ambient soundscaping. The text contrasts a reflective first set with a more aggressive second set, highlighting Lloyd Swanton’s bass-led meditative opening and the evolving rhythmic and melodic interplay with Tony Buck and Chris Abrahams. The pandemic-era setting and the audience’s masked intimacy add emotional texture to the author’s experience.","CITY OF LIGHT: THE NECKS AT THE OPERA HOUSE  \nby Mark Mordue*  \nThis review appeared on February 13, 2022 on Mark Mordue’s website “The Electrified Journalist”, and can be read there at this link [https://electrifiedjournalist.com/2022/02/13/city-of-light/](https://electrifiedjournalist.com/2022/02/13/city-of-light/. The website)[. The website](https://electrifiedjournalist.com/2022/02/13/city-of-light/. The website) includes free verse, spare change, loose thoughts, personal essays, poems, drones, raves, reviews, dreams, themes, head revs, short stories, interviews and inner views.  \nhe fine art of forgetting is perhaps The Necks strongest attribute. A concert  \nTby the Australian threeatmospheres of organic-piece slidrifting,psutbetwilisinegen thbasse, tautlypianoeanngdaged and extepercussion tonded  \nbecome something so trance-inducing you lose track of where and whatever you are.  \n* Mark Mordue is an Australian writer, journalist, and editor, who lives in Sydney. He was a co-winner of the 2014 Peter Blazey Fellowship, which recognizesan outstanding manuscript in the fields of biography, autobiography, or life writing, and is the author of “Dastgah: Diary of a Headtrip”.  \nIt’s hardly surprising at the close of their opening night on February 9, 2022, in the Utzon Room at the Sydney Opera House that double bassist Lloyd Swanton thanks everyone for coming together to experience music with them at this time. But when he chooses the word “metabolising” to express that collective experience it feels as if the word has peculiar charge for all of us.  \nLloyd Swanton: he chooses the word “metabolising” to express the collective experience of coming together to experience music with The Necks…PHOTO COURTESY AUSTRALIAN JAZZ REAL BOOK  \nTwo years into the pandemic there is still something peculiar in looking around a room to see only masked faces. All the stranger, by night’s end, for gaining an intimacy with everyone through the journey The Necks have taken us on. Beyond each other’s eyes, clothes, gestures, an uncomfortable burst of coughing, an asthmatic oppression, we mostly spend our time disappearing into ourselves. A yoga class might seem rowdy and excessively social by comparison.  \nTonight is structured around a typical Necks concert strategy of two sets: one more reflective; one more aggressive, even frantic. The meditative opener is led by Swanton on the double bass. At first, percussionist drummer Tony Buck and pianist Chris Abrahams appear to be struggling to meld with, and catch up to Swanton, whois soon playing out of his skin. Yet the circling rhythmic and melodic patterns still feel like The Necks in second gear. Very good, but only that. And when you’re one of the finest instrumental groups in the world this is somehow disappointing for hardened Necks ‘trancers’.  \nSometimes pianist Chris Abrahams (left) and percussionist drummer Tony Buck (right) appear to be struggling to meld with, and catch up to Swanton…  \nWhat The Necks do is often categorised loosely as ‘jazz’. But if it is jazz it is about away of thinking far more than a genre you might be familiar with. The group are so into improvising, minimalism, and ambient soundscaping they’re as close to Brian Eno or Harry Partch (who invented his own instruments) as, say, Keith Jarrett. Unlike most avant-gardists, The Necks sense of space and slow-circling sonic play – so slow it can feel as if the physical condition of each instrument is itself under exploration – adds up to a very pleasurable listening experience. Hypnosis is their only demand upon you. You don’t have to try.  \nPatience is certainly their strong suite as a unit. Not rushing in; listening very, very closely to one another; finding complimentary or opposing relationships in order to advance what is occurring. Some listeners will say it just washes over them. Others will go swimming so deep it takes a while to return to the surface.  \nAfter feeling they are not in top gear form, I begin to lose myse","cbCaiqiCyA1orm0D","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqiCyA1orm0D","pdf",806589,7,"English","en",105,"# The Necks at the Opera House - Opening Night\n## Structure of the Concert\n## Improvisation, Space, and Listening\n## Pandemic-Era Atmosphere and Emotional Impact","[{\"question\":\"What concert structure does the review describe for The Necks’ performance?\",\"answer\":\"The review describes two sets: a more reflective opening and a more aggressive, even frantic second set.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the reviewer characterize The Necks’ musical style?\",\"answer\":\"The reviewer says the music is often loosely categorized as “jazz,” but it’s more about a way of thinking—improvisation, minimalism, and ambient soundscaping—guided by a strong sense of space.\"},{\"question\":\"What role does the pandemic setting play in the reviewer’s experience?\",\"answer\":\"Seeing masked faces in the room shapes the sense of collective intimacy, while the author contrasts the resulting inwardness with how socially rowdy a yoga class might feel.\"}]","City of Light - 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