Alister Spence Trio with Ed Kuepper - Asteroid Ekosystem

2020

From Alister:

I am very pleased to present Asteroid Ekosystem (ASM010), the latest release by the Alister Spence Trio featuring Ed Kuepper on guitar. Ed will be well known to many as co-founder, guitarist, and chief song writer for the proto punk band, The Saints, and The Laughing Clowns.
I first heard Ed Kuepper’s music more than thirty years ago. His interest in and skill with sound and improvisation came across so clearly. His songs always unfolded in interesting ways and often opened out to be extended by the players in his bands.

In 2007 I was fortunate to have the opportunity to play with Ed for a concert version of his Honey Steel’s Gold recording. This connection has continued, including several tours playing with Ed’s band the Laughing Clowns — temporarily reformed in 2009/10 — and now to the present with The Aints!.
Ed was straightaway enthusiastic when I asked if he would like to be part of the next recording that Lloyd, Toby, and myself made, though none of us knew exactly what form that might take.
We played an ‘off the cuff’ set in Sydney in March 2018 and that seemed to go very well. In March 2019 the four of us met for two days in the studio. I’d prepared some word descriptions of things to try and a few melodic cells, but primarily we just launched into
improvising pieces.

And this is the result.
It is a joy to be able to present Asteroid Ekosystem.
Thanks to Ed, Lloyd, Toby, Tim, and so many people for their friendship, collaboration, inspiration, love, and support.
This double CD explores a range of moods and approaches. Some tracks are melodic and slowly unfolding (‘Not a Leaf in Any Forest,’ ‘To the Invisible’), some are fierce and strong (‘Winds Take Forests’), some are a combination (‘Silence in the Earth’), some are groove based (‘A Passing Universe,’ ‘Out Upon Circumference’), some are quirky or blues influenced (‘Nature,’ ‘Face of the Atom’), some are rocky (‘Planetary Forces,’ ’And Set the Sun’). Ed’s guitar playing sometimes gentle and melodic sometimes forceful and noisy dovetails brilliantly with the trio and lends to a strong, unique, band sound.
I hope you enjoy the music!
All the best
Alister Spence