“Where There Was No Path” is veteran pianist/composer Peter Madsen’s 11th release as a leader on the Playscape Recordings label and his first release with his Six on Six Guitar Ensemble, one of 12 ensembles born from Madsen’s Austria-based Collective of Improvising Artists (CIA), an organization he founded in 2007.
Madsen’s band on »Curiouser and Curiouser«, the CIA Storytellers, is the jazz-quartet core of his Seven Sins Ensemble, which incorporated a string quartet to fine effect on Never Bet the Devil Your Head. Without the strings, we are treated to a superb small-group sound, with Madsen joined by trumpeter Herbert Walser, bassist Herwig Hammerl and drummer Martin Grabher. The four navigate Madsen’s whip-smart compositions with aplomb, and their interactions are always stimulating.
CIA Seven Sins Ensemble: »Never Bet the Devil Your Head«
»Never Bet the Devil Your Head« is the second recording with Madsen’s Seven Sins Ensemble, one of nine ensembles born from Madsen’s Austria-based Collective of Improvising Artists (CIA), an organization he founded in 2007. Madsen’s Gravity of Love, also released on Playscape in 2012, was his first recording with this ensemble.
»I Ching« is veteran pianist/composer Peter Madsen’s ninth release as a leader on the Playscape Recordings label. This duo release is Madsen’s second CD project with Austrian drummer/percussionist Alfred Vogel – a member of Madsen’s Collective of Improvising Artists (CIA) – following Madsen’s Soul of the Underground CD in 2013. This is Vogel’s first date on Playscape as a co-leader, though he has appeared with Madsen on three other Playscape releases.