Ned Collette‘s coming out of his wintersleep armed with a new band in the shape of Fredrik Kinbom from Sweden on bass and Stuart Braun from Melbourne on drums. He assures me it’s going to raw, rough and very rock n’ roll given it’s his first time appearing onstage with an electric guitar in a while now.
Collette’s recent album with his Wirewalker project came out last August on Fire Records and is yet another impressive addition to his already stunning back catalogue. Resident of Berlin for several years now, Collette can all too rarely be seen on stage accompanied by a full band so hopefully this is the first of many full band shows to come.
Ned Collette moved to Berlin from his native Melbourne two years ago. A well known and respected singer-songwriter in his own country and in underground circles worldwide, he has played shows in Europe with the likes of Joanna Newsom, Akron/Family, Bill Callahan and Nina Nastasia. His early musical output was based mostly in experimental music, before he gravitated towards more traditional song structures.
Joining Ned & co are fellow Berlin-based Melbournian’s Roller One, a contrabass/guitar duo who’ve been touring constantly all over Europe since October last. It’s a seductive mixture of country and folk music with that certain something which only Australian bands seem to have these days when it comes to mixing those two:
The contrabass and acoustic guitar duo are constantly looking for new ways to interpret the songwriting of Fergus McAlpin which continue the traditions of country and folk with what has become a distinctive sound of music from Melbourne, Australia. At times delicate, dreamy and whispering contrasted with heavy rhythms and deep bass notes. They have developed their duo, performance by performance, both in Australia and Europe, winning hearts with their virtuoso musicality and stripped back presentation.
They’ve just landed back in Berlin and who knows how long they’ll be around for so catch them while you can.
Here’s Long You Lie from said album, 2 and Roller One with Million Dollars:
