Never Bet the Devil Your Head pays tribute to Madsen's childhood memories of reading spine tingling tales and watching suspenseful thrillers such as The Pit and the Pendulum, written by renowned author and poet Edgar Allan Poe. Much like Gravity of Love, this second project with his Seven Sins Ensemble explores similarly dark material such as The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart, pulled from some of Poe’s short stories, which inspired this recording.
"Before composing each piece for this latest recording, I read a Poe story or poem and then tried to capture the feelings and ideas of each story in the music I composed," Madsen writes in his liner notes. "Since Poe wrote about many different things, I picked a variety of his pieces to form a balanced musical program. The music that came out was a combination of modern jazz and classical sounds and concepts full of odd meters and very difficult lines as well as improvised sections. I hope you enjoy the powerful and deeply emotional and sometimes scary music of Never Bet the Devil Your Head!!"
1. The Raven
2. A Dream Within A Dream
3. The Tell-Tale Heart
4. The Cask Of Amontillado
5. The Sphinx
6. Never Bet The Devil Your Heart
7. The Fall Of The House Of Usher
8. Mesmeric Revelation
9. The Masque Of The Red Death
10. A Descent Into The Maelstrom
Herbert Walser- trumpet
Herwig Hammerl- double bass
Martin Grabher- drums, percussion
Aleksandra Lartseva- violin
Monica Tarcsay- violin
Simon Frick- violin, electronics
Bianca Riesner- cello
