Ned Collette – Our Other History

“Our Other History is a wonderful new LP by this wandering Berlin-based Melbourne expat. Ned’s last album, Afternoon Dusk was an avant instrumental trio outing with James Rushford and Joe Talia, but Our Other History is a return to the delicate, sophisticated song craft of his 2018 masterpiece, Old Chestnut.

Ned’s approach to lyrics, vocals and music shares a melancholic beauty that is both haunted and haunting. His words are often more impressionistic than overt in their storytelling, but his vocals carry hints that recall those of the legendary Roy Harper. But where Harper’s attack was often Dionysian, Collette’s approach is Apollonian, and the tracks often have a compositional feel with a distinct taste of Canterbury.

The players this time include old hands, like drummer Steve Heather and pianist Chris Abrahams (of The Necks), but there are a bunch of new players on hand, including Melbourne mates Jim White and Mick Turner (of Dirty Three fame) and the folksinger Leah Senior. All these elements (and more) are fitted together with elegance and allowed space to breathe.

Collette’s music is hard to classify. It exists inside a dynamic flux made up of equal parts post-rock, folk, jazz and avant prog, but it manages to remain plain-spoken and uncluttered regardless of how complex its structure can be when you start parsing it. But why bother? With a record as throughly lovely as Our Other History, the best idea is to just relax and let the music flow. Beautifully.” – Byron Coley, 2024

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“I don’t really know Ned Collette. That’s about to change, and I am energized with anticipation. Last summer, I saw Ned in performance here in my hometown of Louisville, KY, accompanied by Elisabeth Fuchsia who had recently become a hero-friend. And it was ‘magical’, ‘alchemical’, engaging and illuminating and inspiring; I witnessed Ned’s and Fuchsia’s almost overpowering fluency with music and with music’s ability to act simultaneously as the medium for communication between performers and with audience.

I’m bouncing back and forth with how I refer to Ned Collette in this writing. If I always called him “Collette” it might disguise the fact that, should I wish to, I could reach him now, easily, on the telephone or over email, and that our acquaintance continues to grow and just about resembles something I’ve learned can be called friendship. If I only referred to him as “Ned”, though, it would belie the fact that I am humbled by his ability.

These are songs. They are also sound-pieces, artful constructions of dynamic arrangement. Our Other History is a dreamworld unto itself and, where each song stands on its own, this is one of those increasingly rare beasts: a full-length record to to experience and behold and live in for a while as a whole thing. The contributors’ voices (including the human voice in the cases of Leah Senior and Judith Hamann) bring such significant impact that it is beyond what we think of as musical parameters, getting deeper into the drama and tone of each piece. I would call it “Lyric Music” because the lyric carries much of the weight (not to say burden) of what is communicated. The word dominates, and here the word rewards. When Mick Turner’s guitar enters the scene, I am overwhelmed with joy; and Jim White’s drum playing has never felt more natural and powerful and appropriately modifying than it does here. And then I begin to notice Steve Heather’s drumming everywhere else and am floored by its dusty elegance. But isn’t fair to single out players; I’m being fully subjective, and my perspective changes with each listen. The record as a whole is directed in ways that we understand a movie director oversees the identity of her or his film.

Ryan Davis and I were driving around the United States not long ago and he played this record in the van. I couldn’t believe that something so fine was also new. But it could only be new; it wears its modernity subtly and surely and is as rewarding a listening experience as I’ve come across in recent times.” – Will Oldham, 2024