The quintet Pilgrim, founded by Zurich based tenor saxophonist Christoph Irniger, has become over the years one of the most exciting ensembles in young European Jazz. After the highly praised group's latest studio recording 'Italian Circus Story', Pilgrim — driven by enthusiasm and inventiveness — presents the vibrant live album 'Big Wheel'. Pilgrim plays full of verve, with plenty of room for spontaneity and improvisation and demonstrates on these recordings impressively their pulsating music. Pilgrim's approach needs to prove itself over and again, and has to constantly develop — The Big Wheel. On the continuum of intentionally persecuting something pre-planned and letting it happen the group clearly and strongly tends to the latter. It leaves each member in a state of mutual trust in each other's originality and experience. The accompanying soundtrack oscillates between enigmatic reflection and wild eruptions, although the band creates a dense, all-round sound which is hard to categorise.

[source: Bop Shop website, 2019-Dec-2]