Playground Quartet  (english)

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The Playground Quartet consists of long-standing musical companions who leave the beaten track in search of new forms of expression. The boundary between composition and improvisation merges in order to find new forms of interaction on their common playground - the stage.
The live use of electronic effects creates soundscapes in the moment that provide new impulses for playing together and thus have a lasting impact on the band's sound. However, these should not become an end in themselves, but should be interwoven with the conventional characteristics of the instruments as an independent component of the instrumentarium of the quartet.
In their wide-ranging repertoire, original compositions and arrangements by all band members, which have evolved and grown over the years of playing together, are paired with sound and sound networks created live in the moment in a wide cosmos of free improvisation and shaping the moment.

The four musical personalities, touring internationally at jazz, pop and brass festivals and clubs, bring an enormous complexity to the sound of this quartet, in addition to the audibly familiar communication that has grown over the years of playing together.
At times the quartet sounds catchy, lyrical and soulful in the sound aesthetic of a pop band - the next moment this develops into progressive rock, metal or a hard swinging traditional jazz quartet. At the same time, a nostalgia for the sound of the 70s and 80s and diffuse clouds of sound imported from outer space may be audible.
The quartet won the “Johnny Raducanu” international jazz festival in Braila (Romania) in 2019.
Their first EP “Odyssey” was released in 2020. Their second recording "Pathways" was released in July 2025.

Christopher Schneider - saxophone & effects
Max Heimler - guitar & effects
Moritz Graf - bass & effects
Jonas Sorgenfrei - drums, sounds & effects