i.Trio – jazz // world // rock
Presskit

Get to know us

i.trio: Three unique musicians got together. The sources of this inspired trio are the compositions of the founder, the guitar player Jan Trösch. Fresh guitar sounds, complex harmonic and rhythmic ideas are his feature. The Band never only acts either kind or noisy. This trio understands how to express a wide range of musical moods. The stylistic bandwidth reaches from soft and moony sounds until sharp and expressive ideas. The bassist Pierre Sottas contributes his solid rhythmic feeling along with his characteristic improvisation skills. The drummer, Urs Wittwer, provides a rhythmic and colorful base for the band. All these components result in a thaw of Rock, World and Jazz music. A musical journey, hard to categorize. This trio definitely found an own voice to the present time.

Members

Jan Trösch

Guitar

Guitarplayer, Bassplayer, Singer and Arranger. He plays all around Switzerland but already toured in Europe, Asia and Africa. Actual Projects: i.Trio, Alpine Spacelab, Skinny Jim Tennessee, S26, Børd. He played with Theodosii Spassov, Deabrat Mishra, Michael Werthmüller, Christophe Schweizer, ...

Pierre Sottas

Bass

Bass player, teacher, arranger, producer, he plays all around Switzerland and Europe in a lot of different styles. Main projects : i.Trio, Espresso From Hell, Montreux Jazz On The Road Band, Gallavin (arranger, producer, bass), Time Grid, Papapitufo, Loraine Cotting... He has played with Billy Cobham, Adam Nussbaum, Jacob Collier, Jerry Léonide, Claude Diallo, Sabine Kühlich, Gaël Rakotondrabé, Fred Bintner, Federico Casagrande...

Urs Wittwer

Drums

Started to play Drums at the age of 12. After playing in high school bands he started to take lesson with Dave Doran at the age of 19. Music became more and more his passion. In order to study drums more serious, he decided to take lessons with Billy Brooks at the Swissjazzschool in Bern. After one year, he moved to Basel to study with Julio Barreto at the music college in Basel. During his studies, he took part of several Groups and Bigbands, playing a variety of styles. In 2004 he got a prize of the Friedl- Wald- foundation in Switzerland. Besides studying with Julio Barreto and Samuel Rohrer he also attended many different Masterclasses with great international artists such as Jorge Rossi, Mario Gonzi, Nate Smith, Tony Martinez, Horacio Hernandez, etc. In 2005 he started to play with the instrumental band called „i.trio“ and recorded their debut album in 2007. Since he always had a preference for latin american music, he decided to move to south america in 2007 after graduating at music college in Basel. So for the next 3 years Urs Wittwer lived in São Paulo where he attended classes with several drummers and percussionists, such as Giba Favery, Christiano Rocha and Dinho Gonçalves among others. During his stay in Brazil, he also played with different local artists and formed his own group. Back in Switzerland, he is currently playing as a freelance musician in different band projects.

Audio

Pictures

Videos

What the press says

I.Trio, Triosom: Jazz-rock threesome from Europe led by guitarist Jan Trösch, who dares to ask the musical question “Can one shred tastefully?” Answer is, against all odds, kinda yes. Strange time signatures here and there but mostly spicy fusion with neo-feedbacky and overdriven computer noise touches. Very reminiscent of Pat Metheny Trio stuff except with a couple different variations like “let’s weird things up with synths” (”Triosom” itself) and “let’s sound as much like African guitar groovemeisters as we can” (”Istanbul”). Very enjoyable, grows on me every new listen like a fungus, might be some kind of genius hiding there in Switzerland.

Matt Cibula

Cave 17

Spannungsreicher Triosound aus dem Bernbiet um den Gitarristen und Komponisten Jan Trösch. Mit Pierre Sottas am Bass und Urs Wittwer am Schlagzeug schafft sich Trösch eine kompakte Struktur für seine Kompositionen zwischen Rock und bluesigem Jazz. Wummernde Basslines und dichte Grooves schaffen Atmosphäre. Tröschs solistische Ausflüge verlassen nie das Spannungsfeld des Trios, auch wenn er kräftig in die Saiten greift. Das Spektrum der Songs ist breit, manche Rhythmen und Übergänge reich an Variationen. Fein gezeichnete lyrische Passagen haben erzählerische Qualitäten und wecken Fernweh. Eigenwillig und dennoch eingängig ist das i.trio ein spannender Live-Act mit improvisatorischem Potenzial. […]

Martin Fisher

Jazz'n'More

Die drei Musiker, die sich zum „i-Trio“ zusammengefunden haben, studierten interessanterweise an drei verschiedenen schweizerischen Jazzschulen. Der Gitarrist und Komponist Jan Trösch in Luzern, der stark treibende und für viel Energie sorgende Bassist Pierre Sottas in Genf und der virtuose Schlagzeuger Urs Wittwer in Bern.

Jan Tröschs Songs erscheinen filigran strukturiert und in bekömmlicher Frische. Sie transportieren modernen Jazz im Tummelfeld von Rock, Worldmusic und Fusion. Die Musik wirkt transparent und jedes Instrument bleibt klar und leicht- füssig hörbar. Bei aller Intimität entwickeln die Stücke einen starken Drive, zum Beispiel in den Titeln Ground oder Jallah, die dank elektrisch verzerrten Soli geradezu an die Gitarrenheroen der Siebzigerjahre erinnern.

BBDZ Kulturtipps

Un trio: guitare, contrebasse et batterie. Un trio qui ne joue ici que les compositions de son guitariste. Hum, difficile. Non, pas si difficile que ça: c’est un trio qui dialogue et trialogue et qui fait le pont entre une approche rock, world et jazz, surtout rock – le son de la guitare – et jazz – l’impro omniprésente. Et puis, il y a sa brièveté: un poil moins de 33 minutes. Pingrerie? Non, je ne pense pas. Respect du public plutôt. Quoique. Un peu plus de zizique n’aurait pas fait de mal, mais ce qu’on y trouve, c’est de la bonne. Je n’ai pas de préférences dans ce disque, son écoute du premier au huitième morceau, dans l’ordre voulu par i.trio, me semble s’imposer. Mais ce qui semble surtout s’imposer, c’est la qualité des trois musiciens qui le composent: Trösch, Sottas et Wittwer.

Norberto Gimelfarb

Viva la Musica, mensuel de l'AMR

Avec Triosom, c’est un jazz métissé de rock et à l’occasion de world musique que propose le i.trio. Avec Jan Trösch à la guitare, Pierre Sottas à la [...]basse et Urs Wittwer, les musiciens déploient ainsi des compositions variées et expressives. Tour à tour tranquilles ou plus animées, mais jamais fiévreuses, elles déroulent des ambiances originales, servies par des trames mélodiques complexes mais toujours lisibles. Avec «Istambul», on ainsi de discrètes touches africaines, tandis que «Stranger», un des coups de cœur de cet album, propose un leitmotiv qui glisse vers un léger décalé [...] «Triosom», s’avère particulièrement prenant. Au final, cet album assez bref, une demi-heure, s’avère donc une réussite, qui confirme, si besoin était, la qualité d’ensemble des CD proposés par le label Altrisuoni, bien connu de tous les amateurs de jazz. 

Hélène Koch

Swissdisc

Questo album funziona come un piccolo orologio svizzero: benissimo. Le composizioni sono del chitarrista Jan Trosch, il leader del gruppo. Un chitarrista dotato di buona tecnica ed idee originali quanto basta. Con lui troviamo un batterista preciso e incalzante come Urs Wittwer e il bassista Pierre Sottas, musicista grintoso e con un bel suono profondo.
L'album è piuttosto breve (poco meno di trentatre minuti) e gli otto brani sono tutti fra i tre e i cinque minuti, appena superati in un solo caso. Sono piccole miniature cesellate ed eleganti, veicoli perfetti per l'interplay maturo dei tre protagonisti. Gli spunti tematici sono sempre risolti con grazie e coerenza, senza lasciare nulla al caso.

Il mood è quello del jazz contemporaneo carico di rimandi e richiami. Qualche stilema rock fa capolino fra le nuvole e scalda ulteriormente lo scenario. In particolare il secondo brano, quello che dà il titolo all'album, ci porta su strade poco battute che profumano di western.

In altre circostanze spuntano fuori i leoni e allora ci pare di essere dalle parti del continente nero. Poi ci sembra di poterci tuffare nell'oceano di erba delle pianure del Missouri, ma è solo una piccola illusione. Finito il sogno ci accorgiamo di essere sempre rimasti nella cara vecchia Svizzera, paese ideale per coltivare un suono e farlo crescere con garbo e determinazione.

Maurizio Comandini

All About Jazz (Italia)

Was unzählige Piano Jazz Trios in letzter Zeit geschäfft haben, sich nämlich einen Namen zu schaffen, mit einem eigenständigen Sound, mit einer persönlichen Mixtur aus Jazz und Rock, Bebop und Swing, das schafft auch das Trio um den Gitarristen Jan Trösch. Im Verbund mit Pierre Sottas, Bass und Urs Wittwer, Schlagzeug, bildet Jan Trösch ein ein musikalisches Biotop in dem Jazz Töne eines Pat Martino, elegisch-Poppiges von Pat Metheny, funky Notes eines Scofield, Rock eines Satriani, Blues eines Scott Henderson Platz haben. Dabei kann man schon mal länger überlegen, um das dann nach einigen Titeln wieder aufzugeben um zuzugeben, so klingt das i.trio und sonst niemand. Somit positioniert sich der Gitarrist Trösch mitten in einem Feld der prominenten Gitarrenvirtuosen und fällt dabei sogar noch positiv auf. Das ist ein erfrischendes Lebenszeichen der Jazz Gitarren Trio Fraktion und bietet der grossen Anzahl an Jazz Piano Trios hervorrangend Paroli.

Jazzzeit

Past gigs

We played in quite a lots of places including :

Jazz Onze+ – Lausanne
Vario Bar – Olten, Switzerland
Esse Musikbar – Winterthur, Switzerland
Icogne Jazz Festival – Icogne, Switzerland
Vilnius Mama Jazz Festival – Vilnius, Lituania
Montreux Jazz Festival – Montreux, Switzerland
Montreux Jazz Café – Geneva, Switzerland
Mokka Bar – Thun, Switzerland
Art Beat Festival – Cairo, Egypt
Waldsee – Freiburg, Germany
Die Letzten Tage Mikrojazz Festival – Bern, Switzerland
Cully Jazz Festival – Cully, Switzerland
Ono – Bern, Switzerland
Musigbistrot – Bern, Switzerland
Maison des Artistes – Chamonix, France
etc.

Contact us

Emails and numbers

info@itrio.ch
French and English :
Pierre Sottas, +41 (0) 76 696 70 35
German and English :
Jan Trösch, +41 (0) 76 521 79 76

Booking agent 

Pierre Sottas
+41 (0) 76 696 70 35
booking@itrio.ch

Links

Technical rider