Alister Spence / Ed Kuepper / Lloyd Swanton / Toby Hall

Having experimented with multiple slices of improvised music in settings ranging from duos to big bands and having established a high standard of Jazz interpretation with his 20-year-old trio, Sydney-based pianist Alister Spence takes an unprecedented detour into a variant of electronic Rock with this two-CD set. The result is collaboration with German-Australian Blues-Punk guitarist Ed Kuepper of the Laughing Clowns, who adds his six-strings and pedals to the trio with percussionist Toby Hall and bassist Lloyd Swanton.

Negotiating a prism of sound textures, the quartet doesn’t just fasten on drum backbeats and vibrating guitar buzzes that move tracks from Mainstream to Metal. Instead “Face of the Atom” for instance comes across resembling 1970s dive-bar Blues-Rock with guitar squeaks and flanges and Spence creating an Otis Spann-like walking a bass line, In contrast, “Planetary Forces” has a Hard Rock drum clang/guitar distorted intro that’s only saved from parody by electronic smears and a gentling piano line so extra inferences are treated more subtly. With Kuepper’s ringing frails in counterpoint to cleanly expressive piano chording ushering in an immersive rhythmic melody alongside cymbal sizzles on “Out upon Circumference”, the group articulation resembles a performance by The Necks, part of Swanton’s day job.

Kuepper can create orotund as well as oppressive licks. This means that other tracks are more oriented towards improvisational or pure Jazz-like lilts. These mercurial impulses are also expressed in more atmospheric settings, where for instance, the contrast between guitar string shudders and kinetic piano runs builds up enough tension to reveal the band’s sophisticated sound layering. A change of pace which surmounts the Rock-Jazz riffs is “The Night Became”, a track that mates soundtrack, Mesmer and near-country inflections within scrambling percussion scratches and pulsating piano pressure. Tension is finally released from the energetic crescendo by through smoothed down key tapping.

However the defining track is probably “Winds Take Forests”, which at almost 14 minutes allows for audacious displays of multiple musical strands. Polyrhythmic and polytonal, cross handed piano variations are backed by bell-clanging from Hall and a buzzing double bass line. Adding in voltage buzzing from the guitarist, the climax reached is so dense that individual identities are submerged. Happily though the final sequence is enlivened with Jerry Lee Lewis-like keyboard pounding, upfront guitar frails and detached wraping paper-like crinkles and ruffs from the drummer. Pushed to their technical limits, the parts finally connect with the affiliated sound vanishing just as quickly.

A new milestone in the often surprising musical twists and turns that make up Spence’s career, the experiment may have been better served as a single disc. Most tracks maintain interest though. In fact, the invention and cooperation exhibited by all leads to the speculation that this Ekosystem may be explored again in the future.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Not a Leaf in Any Forest 2. A Passing Universe 3. Nature 4. Caught at All 5. Winds Take Forests 6. Out upon Circumference 7. To the Invisible CD 2: 1. Face of the Atom 2. The One the Other 3. Planetary Forces 4. The Night Became 5. Eclipse 6.. Many Would Fly 7. And Set the Sun 8.Silence in the Earth

Personnel: Alister Spence (piano and percussion); Ed Kuepper (guitar and pedals); Lloyd Swanton (bass) and Toby Hall (drums and percussion)