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The Necks' Latest Composition 'Body' Clocks In At Over 56 Minutes

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

A typical album by The Necks contains just one track, one long track - piano, bass, drums, music that stretches out in a jazzy mesmerizing flow. Chris Abrahams, Lloyd Swanton and Tony Buck formed the trio from Australia. And they've been making music together for more than three decades. Their new release is, as usual, one composition. This one clocks in at 56 minutes, 40 seconds. And it's called "Body."

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

CHRIS ABRAHAMS: My name is Chris Abrahams. I play the piano and assorted other keyboards with The Necks.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: I think we all had a similar idea that we wanted to create, like, a group sound that wasn't based around soloing. I mean, you could say, in some ways, we don't take any solos. In the other way, we sort of - all three of us are soloing at once. The first pieces of music we played were these jams that went on for around about 50 minutes. You know, we'd just begin to play. And I found myself being able to listen to what I was playing in a way that I hadn't done before. It felt like I was part of something that I was creating but I was also listening to. And in the act of listening to, I was informing myself about creating. So there was this feedback loop that maybe I hadn't ever really experienced before.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: This opening section, I think, has an ominous feel. I think there's a certain feeling of mysteriousness about it. You know, the hope is that it's slightly psychedelic-sounding piano.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: The opening section has given way to a much sparser section. That's me on Hammond organ there.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: I think there's also a synthesizer there. I'm playing sort of bell-like chords on the piano - slightly impressionistic, I think.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: I think this section is kind of like a bridging section almost between the opening and what will be the sort of quite full-on third section.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: I love this sort of - you could almost say '70s-style piano - bring a sort of metallic dimension and a punchiness to, you know, a straight, sort of, four-on-the-floor rhythm. Tony's playing some really amazing guitar. And this section goes for, like, 20 minutes and does this. And I think, you know, a lot of people will probably be reminded of Neu, the German krautrock group from the '70s. And personally, I'm happy to be in that company.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: This is the concluding section. It seemed appropriate that we would kind of calm down. I'm playing very heavily reverbed piano that, hopefully, sounds like it's coming from a great distance.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: Tony's playing a lot of sort of shimmering cymbals.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

ABRAHAMS: People find our music very emotional, very hallucinogenic. I mean, they hear things that aren't there. To verbalize these things is actually quite difficult. When I listen to something that I think is really amazing, I get a feeling of like, oh, this is why humans make music. Right. I can see now why what I've just seen is necessary and should happen. You know, I'm not sure that happens all the time. So when it does happen, it's very special.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE NECKS SONG, "BODY")

MONTAGNE: Chris Abrahams from The Necks. Their new album is called "Body." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Renee Montagne is co-host of NPR's Morning Edition, the most widely heard radio news program in the U.S. She has hosted the newsmagazine since 2004, broadcasting from NPR West in Culver City, California, with co-host Steve Inskeep in NPR's Washington, D.C. headquarters. Montagne is a familiar voice on NPR, having reported and hosted since the mid-1980s. She hosted All Things Considered with Robert Siegel for two years in the late 1980s, and previously worked for NPR's Science, National and Foreign desks. Montagne traveled to Greenwich, England, in May 2007 to kick off the yearlong series, "Climate Connections," in which NPR partnered with National Geographic to chronicle how people are changing the Earth's climate and how the climate is impacting people. From the prime meridian, she laid out the journey that would take listeners to Africa, New Orleans and the Antarctic. Since 9/11, Montagne has gone to Afghanistan nine times, travelling throughout the country to speak to Afghans about their lives. She's interviewed farmers and mullahs, poll workers and President Karzai, infamous warlords turned politicians and women fighting for their rights. She has produced several series, beginning in 2002 with 'Recreating Afghanistan" and most recently, in 2013, asking a new generation of Afghans — born into the long war set off by the Soviet invasion — how they see their country's future. In the spring of 2005, Montagne took Morning Edition to Rome for the funeral of Pope John Paul ll. She co-anchored from Vatican City during a historic week when millions of pilgrims and virtually every world leader descended on the Vatican. In 1990, Montagne traveled to South Africa to cover Nelson Mandela's release from prison, and continued to report from South Africa for three years. In 1994, she and a team of NPR reporters won a prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for coverage of South Africa's historic presidential and parliamentary elections. Through most of the 1980s, Montagne was based in New York, working as an independent producer and reporter for both NPR and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Prior to that, she worked as a reporter/editor for Pacific News Service in San Francisco. She began her career as news director of the city's community radio station, KPOO, while still at university. In addition to the duPont Columbia Award, Montagne has been honored by the Overseas Press Club for her coverage of Afghanistan, and by the National Association of Black Journalists for a series on Black musicians going to war in the 20th century. Montagne graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as a Phi Beta Kappa. Her career includes serving as a fellow at the University of Southern California with the National Arts Journalism Program, and teaching broadcast writing at New York University's Graduate Department of Journalism.
Renee Montagne
Renee Montagne, one of the best-known names in public radio, is a special correspondent and host for NPR News.
Ned Wharton is a senior producer and music director for Weekend Edition.