Alister Spence Pushes the Boundaries of the Piano on Always Ever

Australian pianist, composer, and improviser Alister Spence continues his fearless exploration of sound with Always Ever, an ambitious new solo album released April 24, 2026. Featuring 16 fully improvised pieces, the release finds Spence expanding his relationship with the piano through an array of experimental techniques, prepared piano methods, and spontaneous invention.

The album builds upon the creative path established with his acclaimed 2020 solo release Whirlpool, which was praised by All About Jazz as "a good place to hear [Spence's] uncommon imagination at work." On Always Ever, however, Spence ventures even further beyond conventional piano performance, embracing the instrument as an entire sonic landscape rather than simply a keyboard.

"The playing of the piano for me has expanded to encompass the whole piano, more than just playing the keys," Spence explains. "I'm interested in contingency. I'm interested in accidents and what they cause to happen in the music, and I deliberately try to create those accidents for myself."

That philosophy permeates every moment of Always Ever. The collection moves effortlessly between percussive prepared piano textures, meditative drones, abstract improvisation, and lyrical passages, with each composition offering a distinct perspective on the instrument's limitless possibilities. From the resonant string strikes of the opening track "Mystic" to the metallic textures of "Distant Cousins," the album continually surprises while inviting listeners into Spence's process of discovery.

Critics have long recognized Spence's singular artistic voice. Stuart Nicholson of Jazzwise writes, "Spence is both imaginative and expansive, sensitive to mood and contrast, texture and melody, euphony and cacophony." Stuart Broomer of The Free Jazz Collective similarly praises the pianist's originality, noting that Spence "possesses a particular kind of vision that speaks to an original distance... a special capacity to see through time and space to a different territory."

Spence traces the roots of his adventurous approach back to his years with the internationally acclaimed ensemble Clarion Fracture Zone, where experimentation first became central to his musical identity. Over the decades, that curiosity has flourished through collaborations with renowned artists including Satoko Fujii, Lloyd Swanton of The Necks, Toby Hall, and Ed Kuepper, while his work as a composer for film and television has further broadened his creative perspective.

Yet it is in his solo work where Spence's sonic imagination has found perhaps its most compelling outlet. Throughout Always Ever, he embraces uncertainty, allowing chance, texture, resonance, and instinct to shape each performance in real time.

"I do things throughout this album where I'm only broadly aware of how they're going to sound," Spence says. "So much is just open to the moment... Even if I'm playing the piano more conventionally, I try to deliberately make myself go off track so that I'm not able to guess what's going to happen as a result."

Recorded on September 28, 2025, Always Ever stands as a captivating document of an artist continually redefining both his instrument and his own creative process. For listeners drawn to adventurous improvisation, prepared piano, and boundary-pushing contemporary jazz, Alister Spence's latest release offers an absorbing journey into the infinite possibilities of sound.