Major Vistas

Art in the cafe...

Laurel Statz


"The Spectator"


December 2025



Laurel Statz is a painter and Madison area native. Her work, while figurative, is influenced by abstraction and minimalism. The paintings often have a quick and instinctual nature, capturing just what’s needed. While she often times herself to eliminate extra details and over-precision, she has ventured into more detailed works as well. Laurel does not attach narrative to her pieces. Rather, she thinks of them like a journaling process for her scatter-brained psyche. The figures in the pieces are meant to be processing tools for the artist and the viewer. She hopes that seeing these figures helps the...
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Friday, July 22, 2016
8:00 pm

"Madison-based trio Major Vistas’ debut album, Minor Anthems, crafts flowing and subtly ambitious instrumentals from a gentle palette of jazz, rock, and electronic sounds. Chris Bucheit’s mostly clean-toned guitars, Mike Weiser’s electric piano, and Geoff Brady’s drums give these songs an approachable surface, but also give the band a lot of room to explore a variety of textures and feels. Weiser and Bucheit dart around each other through the ascending figures of “Deep Space” as Brady weaves tastefully mutating grooves. “Beginning Mind” uses rich piano chords ands delay-streaked guitar loops to craft a melody that’s at once conversational and ominous, with rhythms that alternate between mid-tempo rock and nimble swing. That versatility—and the band’s balance of hooks and improvisation—makes Major Vistas a worthy addition to Madison’s jazz offerings." - Tone Madison