Customer Reviews

Aether

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is my first and only exposure so far to the music of this Australian trio. As you can see this recording, named for the firmament yet carved into the grain of wood, contains a single track that clocks in at 63 minutes. While this may sound like tedium to some, it rewards the listener who allows for a different conception of time in music. But unlike ambient music's flat-line of dynamic, there is progression and tension in Aether.

The composition is basically formed around a cycle of chords that, to start, are very separated-20 seconds peak-to-peak-and gradually move closer together while adding more instrumental color (organ, electric piano, electric bass, arco bass, bells, tumba) around the core of acoustic bass, cymbals, and piano. The opening chord itself gorgeously plunges you into the cycle and the evolution begins; at the end, you can't believe how you arrived there.

Obvious comparisons can be made to Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Can, Fela Kuti, Basinski's Disintegration Loops, and many others but it must be said that The Necks are plying their own sound. There is perhaps a reflection of the Australian landscape-the vast stretches of land, island isolation-seen in the long-form that their music prefers. Indeed, I listened to Aether while driving across Idaho on Highway 20 and found it an ideal companion.

The Necks from Australia are kind of the underground band out there in the new music (jazz) scene. The Necks are noted to make mostly 60 minute one song CD's.

Aether is a wonderful 'moment in time'. I hear Jade Warrior's magic (Island Years), Medeski, Martin and Wood (Tonic) and some of the best ECM sounds when that label transformed for a brief time towards a new age leaning sound (Soltice, Towner, Oregon -Vangaurd).

It is a music groups' masterpiece. The musicians 'hear' each other and follow the airy and building mood from beginning to the end of the piece. I normally don't get into too much really mellow sounding stuff, but Aether is just an exceptional record. I can't get enough of it. Exquisite spin!

The idea of "acoustic ambient" didn't have a solid referent in my mind, so I had no idea what to expect. But after hearing this release (composed of a single, evolving track) just once, I was taken further downstream in consciousness than I've been in quite a long time. "Aether" is one of the most moving, but completely indescribable, recordings I've ever heard. The Necks manage something close to magic by combining a sparse collection of acoustic instruments, insight into the nature of sound, and an unquantifiable precision and talent in playing. With this work, they create a shimmering, fractalline, organic nova within which are threaded a million complex tendrils of sound - hypnotic tones, overtones, and shiny but gentle cymbal splashes on top of which slow-motion melodies and haiku-like phrases of guitar and piano unfold.

This is certainly theta-state music, striking a beautiful balance between excitation and calm. I would not be surprised if this music were embraced to cure schizophrenia, depression, or anxiety. There are no hooks, no conventional elements, nothing to hold onto in the Aether - only the continuous flow of sound through an omega point of mental and somatic resolution. Sonic pointillism, perhaps? Whatever it is, or whatever we might want to call it, I would not hesitate to bring it with me to my deathbed along with Coyote Oldman's "Thunder Chord," Peter Gabriel's "Passion," David Sylvian and Holger Czukay's "Plight/Premonition," and Divination's "Sacrifice." It's really that good.

Aether was the first Necks' album I heard,and it remains my favourite to this day.A beautiful,slow-burning,trance-inducing masterpiece.It always amazes me when musicians create music of such depth and purity from such minimalistic elements.

I have never heard music with such originality and depth!
They seem to have taken one musical technique....namely repetition
(or some would say looping) and made it into a way of life!

The quality of the SILENCE is earth-shattering in the beginning
and right when you think you know where it is going it turns a corner....
such a wondrous journey it takes the listener on!

Can't recommend it enough, I have heard a number of their cd's
and this one is by far my favorite!!!!

The idea of "acoustic ambient" didn't have a solid referent in my mind, so I had no idea what to expect. But after hearing this release (composed of a single, evolving track) just once, I was taken further downstream in consciousness than I've been in quite a long time. "Aether" is one of the most moving, but completely indescribable, recordings I've ever heard. The Necks manage something close to magic by combining a sparse collection of acoustic instruments, insight into the nature of sound, and an unquantifiable precision and talent in playing. With this work, they create a shimmering, fractalline, organic nova within which are threaded a million complex tendrils of sound - hypnotic tones, overtones, and shiny but gentle cymbal splashes on top of which slow-motion melodies and haiku-like phrases of guitar and piano unfold.

This is certainly theta-state music, striking a beautiful balance between excitation and calm. I would not be surprised if this music were embraced to cure schizophrenia, depression, or anxiety. There are no hooks, no conventional elements, nothing to hold onto in the Aether - only the continuous flow of sound through an omega point of mental and somatic resolution. Sonic pointillism, perhaps? Whatever it is, or whatever we might want to call it, I would not hesitate to bring it with me to my deathbed along with Coyote Oldman's "Thunder Chord," Peter Gabriel's "Passion," David Sylvian and Holger Czukay's "Plight/Premonition," and Divination's "Sacrifice." It's really that good.