Asteroid Ekosystem
Already confirmed for next years inspired Womadedaide line-up and appearing in Canberra next February at the Ainslie & Gorman Arts Centre Improvised Music Season, Asteroid Ekosystem are now excited to announce their debut Sydney show(s) for the Jazz: NOW Summer Festival plus a headline Melbourne appearance.
‘It’s not jazz, it’s not rock…Whatever you want to call it, this is one mighty sonic trip that paints colourful pictures in the mind.’ - Noel Mengel, The Music Review Loudmouth Magazine.
The brainchild of pianist and composer Alister Spence, Asteroid Ekosystem is a supergroup for the 21st century bringing together four of the countires most acclaimed and talented musicians. Spence; the leader of avant-improv group the Alister Spence Trio and touring keyboardist with Sunnyboys, The Aints! and Laughing Clowns, bassist Lloyd Swanton of jazz giants The Necks and the catholics), world class percussionist Toby Hall on drums and the legendary and pioneering Ed Kuepper; guitarist and founding member of The Saints, Laughing Clowns, The Aints! and a solo career that has now stretched into 37 years.
"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.” - Alister Spence
Late in 2020 Asteroid Ekosystem released their eponymous debut album, a double length CD that took Spence’s verbal sketches and melodic cells into new and unknown terrain that earned them rave reviews from around the world and saw them shortlisted for the 2021 APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards under ‘Jazz Work of the Year’.
With Kuepper’s schedule of releases and live activity - most recently with Dirty Three drummer Jim White - plus Swanton’s ongoing commitments with The Necks coupled with the many covid-inspired lockdowns meant live activity has not been an option for the fab four but finally a window of opportunity has opened up that will see Asteroid Ekosystem play live in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne this February-March.
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Kuepper 'n White
… and so our heroes return; having wowed audiences with their take on 45 years worth of Kuepper catalogue Ed Kuepper ’n Jim White return to finish what they began back in May ’21 and before the world went topsy turvy (again).
Kuepper, of course, is the co-founder of '70’s proto-punks The Saints, chief architect of the uncompromising Laughing Clowns and The Aints! and master songsmith over some 15+ solo albums, while White is the brilliant drummer of renowned instrumental trio Dirty Three, partner in the genre-defying Xylouris White and disciple of all things Ed.
“...both Kuepper and White standing by the end of the righteous and powerful performance and seemingly as engrossed in the music as the adoring, sold out throng before them. It’s a masterful display by this Brisbane legend and his new musical compatriot, long may Ed’s local reign over us continue.” - Rhythms
"After 90 minutes of watching their linchpins play and improvise together, it was easy to understand why geographical borders mean nothing to music this transcendent.” - AFR
Coinciding with the tour(s) has been a trio of retrospective releases from Kuepper including a first ever solo singles collection, a handpicked best of from Kuepper post-Saints outfit Laughing Clowns and a live release from Ed’s very own Saints tribute The Aints!
"Across a rich career that stretches back to the first half of the 1970s, and spans such bands as The Saints, Laughing Clowns, The Aints! and countless solo projects, Kuepper has had a singular ability to reinvent himself and to reinvestigate his own back catalogue from new perspectives.” - SMH
"I like how Ed Kuepper - like Lou Reed or Bob Dylan - doesn’t want to replay the hits as was and at the same time doesn’t pretend to not have a past nor a future. In working with the musicians they play with, they revisit their material in new and old ways as well as creating new material and its not a binary problem, an ethic that seems relevant to all things to me.” - Jim White
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