Christoph Irniger - Marc Perrenoud
Christoph Irniger, ts - Marc Perrenoud, p
"A great moment at this year's Unerhört Festival" Manfred Papst, NZZ am Sonntag, 2024
The collaboration between Christoph Irniger and Marc Perrenoud is a unique combination of creative energy and musical skill. Both have their roots in jazz and are technically accomplished instrumentalists with a sparkling temperament. As a duo, they unite the creative energies of two musicians and composers who are renowned on the international jazz scene in a unique way.
With their joint program “New Lines”, Perrenoud and Irniger present their first recording for Unit Records in spring 2026. The music is a fascinating mix of original compositions and innovative reinterpretations of classic jazz standards, with the musicians giving their compositions the freedom to emancipate themselves from their models. Changes and melodies dance around each other, challenging, motivating, and inspiring each other, and developing a symbiotic life of their own, just as Irniger and Perrenoud's intuitions intertwine naturally.
The two musicians have known and appreciated each other for a long time and decided to perform as a duo for the first time in 2022. “This is the first time for both of us to go public in a more traditional context,” Irniger sums up, "and now we just felt like doing it.” And it is precisely this desire that is perceptible in every song, every line, every note, and every interaction.
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Bio
Marc Perrenoud - piano, born in 1981, began playing the piano at the age of 6. He studied at the conservatory in Geneva until 2001 and graduated from the Ecole de Jazz in Lausanne in 2004. Whilst still a student, Perrenoud won the "Montreux Jazz Chrysler Award" in 2003. 2005 he won the prize for best soloist at the International Jazz Festival in Bern and reached the final of the International Jazz Competition of La Défense Jazz Festival in Paris. Since 2008 Marc Perrenoud has played with his Trio more than 300 concerts and has been part of important festival and club programmes worldwide.
Perrenoud has played with many musicians including Grégoire Maret, Kendrick Scott, Mina Agossi, Guillaume Perret, Baenz Oester, Marco Mueller, Cyril Regamey, Pedro Segundo, Pierre Audétat, Sylvain Ghio, Ivor Malherbe, Claudio Strüby etc.
Marc Perrenoud teaches at the Geneva Conservatory and is co-founder and artistic director of the "Les Athénéennes" festival in Geneva.
Christoph Irniger - tenor saxophone, born 1979, is a Swiss saxophonist, composer and bandleader. In recent years, Irniger has made a name for himself in a range of line-ups, playing jazz, rock and related musical styles. Irniger is leader of the band Pilgrim and the Christoph Irniger Trio. From 2000 to 2006 Irniger studied music education at the Zurich Jazz School, and performance at the Lucerne School of Music with Christoph Grab and Nat Su. His work has been documented on twenty albums to date.
He has played concerts and tours throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. His regular visits to Berlin and New York have led to several diverse collaborations, including Nasheet Waits (NoReduce), Don Philippe, Ohad Talmor (Counterpoints). He has also played with Dave Douglas, Dan Weiss, Nils Wogram, Michael Bates, Claudio Puntin and Stefan Rusconi. He was a member of the Lucerne Jazz Orchestra for seven years and can be heard on four of their recordings. He is also co-leader of the prog-rock band Cowboys from Hell.
In 2022, Irniger made his debut as a composer for big band and recorded an album with a full-length program with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra. He teaches at Musikschule Konservatorium in Zurich.
