Christoph Irniger & Marc Perrenoud: ‘New Lines’

It’s rare to hear an album with just tenor sax and piano. Rarer still to have those two musicians - Christoph Irniger and Marc Perrenoud in this case - playing their own compositions inspired by some of the great jazz standards.

New Lines brings together Irniger’s sax and Perrenoud’s piano in their first recorded collaboration. Hailing from Switzerland,  the duo have taken some classic jazz tunes and re-examined them for a new era.

Taking on a Charlie Parker tune like Confirmation is bold and that bravery is rewarded as the duo create the intricate, collaborative Dry Sensation. Later, Fast Finish is a detailed, contrapuntal version of John Coltrane’s Countdown: its only failing is its brevity. In both of these tunes, there is a sense of the original, but composed in a very new era, decades since these sax greats played and composed. 

As Perrenoud’s piano chords ring out on The Unit, the final track of this glorious duo album, Irniger’s sax worries around the melody. Not knowing the source or the original composition is irrelevant: the listener is simply enticed into a world that is rooted in jazz history, brought to life in an intimate and delightfully direct collection of tunes.

‘New Lines’ is out on Unit Records on 27 March 2026