Sounds Have Dreams is the third album (and second studio album) by the Australian quartet Asteroid Ekosytem, which is the trio of pianist and composer Alister Spence, with double bass player Lloyd Swanton (of The Necks), and drummer Toby Hall (of pianist Mike Nock’s band), augmented by local guitar hero Ed Kuepper (he legendary co-founder and chief songwriter for the seventies proto-punk band The Saints, and post-punk meets avant-jazz The Laughing Clowns).

The album’s title hints at the unique process of conceiving this album. Kuepper recorded his solo parts at Production Dungeon in Brisbane in August 2024. Spence took his parts, composed pieces, and ideas for improvisation that Asteroid Ekosytem could explore as a band. Asteroid Ekosystem reconvened for a two-day session at Rancom St Studios in Sydney in April 2025 and recorded Sounds Have Dreams. Later, Spence edited and looped the recorded material, with Kneupper solos providing introductions, backgrounds, and loops.

The twelve pieces of Sounds Have Dreams push Asteroid Ekosystem’s sonic vision into experimental, uncompromising territories where the refined, modern jazz of Spence’s classic, acoustic piano trio collides with Kuepper’s electric guitar territories of avant-rock and psychedelia. The atmosphere is raw, intense, and thorny, and most of the music was free improvised. The quartet sounds as if it is taking more risks than before, consciously attempting to avoid any comfort zones or emphatic dynamics, and sketching unconventional, non-linear textures that capture hypnotic yet twisted grooves, exploratory techniques, and cinematic, dream-like sonic images.

Asteroid Ekosystem has distilled its genre-defying aesthetics into its most adventurous and mysterious journey on Sounds Have Dreams, letting the raw, immediate sounds create and dream their own sonic ecosystems.

Eyal Hareuveni

Alister Spence (piano), Ed Kuepper (electric guitar), Lloyd Swanton (double bass), Toby Hall (drums)