Christoph Irniger and the Swiss Jazz Orchestra? Actually, the saxophonist is rather associated with handy formats. In bands like Pilgrim, Cowboys from Hell or the Christoph Irniger Trio, he prefers smaller ensembles from trio to quintet, in which he brings out every voice, intention and interaction in full balance. The compactness and density that his collaboration with the Swiss Jazz Orchestra now achieves surprises thus even more.

One feels the power of a colossus whose cauldron is heated to bursting point with great melodies. The pressure of the unconditional desire to tell a story keeps the engine constantly running. You cannot listen as fast as the ideas flow. Irniger has certainly brought this lust for fabulating and painting variable sound pictures with him from his small bands and translated it into an unpredictable game with tension and relaxation.

The Swiss Jazz Orchestra, in turn, plunges into this world of sound with audible joy and follows the composer's ideas in seconds from the powerful compact orchestral sound into finely chiselled narratives full of inspiration and surprises.