Clear Path Ensemble emerged from New Zealand as an electro-acoustic venture founded by Wellington multi-instrumentalist Cory Champion, known professionally as DJ, drummer, sound artist, composer, and dance music producer Borrowed cs, and featuring a rotating roster drawn from the city’s top-tier players. Embedded in the city’s expanding neo-jazz and electronic circles, the collective folds psychedelia, spiritual jazz, electric jazz, ambient, house, and additional styles into a single expressive framework.
The self-titled debut album, released on Cosmic Compositions in February 2020, mapped an original landscape blending fusion, spacy improv, sculpted beats, funky grooves, and airy textures. Champion’s collaborators for the recording featured guitarist/bassist Mara TK and bass clarinetist Jaxe Baxendale among its standout contributors. Despite being unable to perform live because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the record’s domestic appeal prompted a September remix collection, while its circulation on Bandcamp positioned the ensemble as leading voices in New Zealand’s rising neo-jazz movement.
Throughout 2021, Champion and the shifting lineup appeared in settings ranging from jam-band clubs and dance parties to a headline slot on the main stage of the Wellington Jazz Festival. Late that year the group joined Miles Cleret’s Soundway label, issuing the single “Absolvo” in June, followed by “Solar Eclipse” in July and the charting “Drumatrix” in August. The second album, titled Solar Eclipse, arrived in September.
