On Sunday, April 26, the cult Australian improvisational and jazz trio 'The Necks' will return to Riga for a concert at the "Hanzas perons" cultural venue.
The musicians’ previous visit to Latvia was announced to the media as “marking their 30th anniversary…” Well, in 2026, it will already be 40 (!) years since pianist Chris Abrahams, double bassist Lloyd Swanton, and drummer Tony Buck have been playing together, and they still stand apart from other piano trios operating in the increasingly ambiguous—yet undeniably jazz—genre.
“Over the years, the trio’s music has become neither senile, nor tired, nor self-indulgent. How many groups are there about whom this can be said? Even more so. Has anyone ever said, ‘Oh, their earlier music, from the start of their career, was much better than what they do today’? That’s because ‘The Necks,’ to borrow an ancient Greek saying, don’t step into the same river twice,” wrote Des Cowley.
That’s true. The trio, whom Swans frontman Michael Gira has called “gods,” haven’t played two concerts exactly alike since 1986. Their two previous visits to our region—in 2013 at the “Zemlika” festival in Durbe and in 2016 at the Zirgu Street Concert Hall in Riga—were performances in which these masters of their own musical language and large-scale improvisation took the stage without any prior knowledge or agreement regarding the performance. Together, they and the audience embark on a sonic journey whose route is determined by the moment and the space. The trio’s approach to recording sessions is similar. When asked by the journalist quoted above, the group’s bassist Loids replied:
“We don’t plan much in advance. Weeks or even months before we meet, each of us can mull over the idea in our thoughts and feelings, but then we simply become witnesses to how the recording session unfolds as we’re all together.”
