Both Irniger and Perrenoud are established figures on the international jazz scene, known for projects that balance strong compositional identity with improvisational freedom. Here, stripped back to saxophone and piano, their long-standing musical affinity comes into sharp focus. Rather than revisiting standards directly, New Lines adopts a conceptual approach inspired by Lennie Tristano: taking familiar harmonic frameworks as points of departure, then writing entirely new melodic material over them.

The result is music that acknowledges tradition while refusing to replicate it. Charlie Parker’s Confirmation becomes Dry Sensation; Bill Evans’ Time Remembered re-emerges as Deja Vu. Elsewhere, pieces such as Fast Finish (based on Coltrane’s Countdown) and Bluesetto (a reimagining of Toots Thielemans’ Bluesette) illustrate how Irniger and Perrenoud allow form, harmony, and intuition to interact, and then move beyond their original models entirely.

Importantly, New Lines doesn’t remain bound to its conceptual framework. As the album unfolds, the duo increasingly steps away from reference points, closing with compositions that stand fully on their own. Intricate interplay is marked by clarity, restraint, and a shared instinct for when to let ideas breathe, or move on.

Irniger and Perrenoud first began performing as a duo in 2022, driven simply by curiosity and mutual respect. “We play standards all the time for ourselves,” Irniger explains, “but we’d never recorded an album in this style before. Now we just felt like doing it.” 

Even for listeners unfamiliar with Tristano’s legacy, the album offers an engaging journey through shifting tempos, moods, and perspectives. It’s a recording rooted in jazz history, but animated by forward motion: a dialogue between structure and spontaneity, intimacy and momentum, tradition and reinvention.