Christoph Irniger Pilgrim

Christoph Irniger, tenor sax; Stefan Aeby, piano; Dave Gisler, guitar; Raffaele Bossard, bas; Michael Stulz, drums

Christoph Irniger, tenor saxophone / Stefan Aeby, piano / Dave Gisler, guitar / Raffaele Bossard, bass / Michi Stulz, drums
The airborne view of the Swiss Alps and the magical plateaux reflected on the surface of the vast lakes fascinates us over and over again, but the familiarity of the landscape is sure to touch a chord with us too. And that is probably also true of the music that comes from there. In recent days, the world has witnessed not only an emergence of notable Swiss pop artists, winning laurels at this year's Eurovision Song Contest, but the blossoming of other genres in this country of 8 million people. Jazz is one of them. The eminent teachers at Switzerland's many renowned conservatoires and universities are attracting scores of young prospective students, including Slovenian musicians. An alumnus of these prestigious seats of learning, the Zürich -based tenor saxophonist Christoph Irniger has been hailed by critics as one of the most promising musicians in contemporary Swiss jazz, and his Pilgrim quintet as one of the most exciting ensembles in young European jazz.

Before he entered the world of jazz Christoph Irniger worked in rock music, as leader of the prog-rock band Cowboys from Hell. He was a member of the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra for seven years, and took lessons from mentors such as Dave Liebman, Mark Turner and Ari Hoenig. He formed two bands, Pilgrim and the Christoph Irniger Trio, so far releasing seven albums (three on Intakt Records). A multi-award winning artist, he has played his original music on European, Asian and US stages. The Pilgrim members play in various other bands and have had the opportunity to work with jazz greats such as Dave Douglas, Christian Weber, Nasheet Waits and Joey Barone. Now passing on this knowledge and experience, Irniger teaches at University of the Arts and the Musikschule Konservatorium in Zürich. He initiated the concert series Jazz im Seefeld, co-founded the Jazzwerkstatt Zürich festival and is a member of the programming team of the Unerhört! festival. 

“I do not see jazz as representing a particular sound or content, but as a way of making music. To me jazz is that music which always processes its time,” says Christoph Irniger who gets ideas for his original compositions from every style of music, and from life itself. His main inspirations are Lake Zürich, the mountains, his family, friends, a range of other art-forms and travelling – above all Berlin and New York, places where he further developed his musical potential and gained inspiration. Irniger places melody above everything else, even in dense, complex notated compositions, or within free jazz passages. 
To mark their tenth anniversary last year, Pilgrim released their fifth album Ghost Cat on Intakt Records, proving once again that they use written compositions and themes merely as a gateway to other, free musical expanses.