Christoph Irniger

Jan 18 2020

Best of 2019 #70: Christoph Irniger Pilgrim – “Crosswinds”

 

The mercurial personality of Crosswinds contrives to never fully reveal its true nature.  It holds something back at all times, and the apex of the album’s homestretch doesn’t manifest a ringing clarity.  It’s as if words Christoph Irniger devised a complex jigsaw puzzle that purposefully omitted a few strategic pieces.  The section of a person’s face comprising their left eye and cheek.  A center window of a building’s penthouse suite.  A swath of the night sky that may or may not have contained the final stars in a constellation.  This album forces the listener to fill in some of the blanks on their own, and the music is sufficiently sparse and minimalist as to give the listener’s imagination all kinds of room for guesswork and creativity.  This in itself is pretty damn intriguing, but nothing compared to the sensation that with each subsequent listen, it’s never the same puzzle pieces missing from the picture.  Outstanding.

Your album personnel:  Christoph Irniger (tenor sax), Stefan Aeby (piano), Dave Gisler (guitar), Raffaele Bossard (double bass), and Michael Stulz (drums).

Released on Intakt Records.

Music from Zürich, Switzerland.

I wrote about this album for The Bandcamp Daily.

Listen | Read more | Available at:  Bandcamp – Amazon

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Feb 8 2019

You deserve some videos. Let’s watch some videos.

 

You deserve a video post.  Yes, you.  And here it is.  Let’s begin…

Oh my god, I love this first video.  It’s from Christoph Irniger Pilgrim and it’s the tune “Improvisation in C Major,” which is on his latest release Crosswinds.  This gorgeous video is shot by Kohei Yamaguchi.  Yes, music world, more videos like this please.  More music like this, too.

This video has all the attributes that veteran readers of this site know I look for:  trains, boats, moody city skylines, seagulls, city street scenes… I’m probably forgetting some stuff, but you get the point.  It’s got it all…

I included Crosswinds in my latest Best Jazz on Bandcamp column, so go check that out and tell them I said hello.

Here’s something a little different from Mikkel Ploug.  It features Ploug’s “A New Logic,” which is a melody transcription of philosopher Alain Badiou.  It also includes dance by Tilman O’Donnell and was filmed at the Århus Rådhus.

Be sure to also check out Ploug’s 2018 release Faroe.

And let’s wrap up today’s column with an in-studio performance of the song “Rue du Jour” from the upcoming new release by Fanny Gunnarsson.  The new album will reportedly be released in March, so you won’t have long to wait to hear more.

The quartet is Fanny Gunnarsson (piano), Karolina Almgren (soprano sax), Kristian Rimshult (bass) and Hannes Olbers (drums).

And be sure to check out Gunnarsson’s 2017 release Mirrors.

 

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