Tripmadame is the name guitarist Andrea Isenegger has given her trio. It calls to mind electronic collages or extended jams. But she's not reinventing psychedelic music. The pieces are compact and concise. The entire CD lasts barely 35 minutes. If you're looking for aimless jamming, you're in the wrong place. This trip gets right to the point, though it's anything but simple. And Madame shines with nimble licks. The music is finely proportioned. The individual parts and sounds each have their places. It's defined by daring stabs of rhythm and melody. At the same time, textures are finely formed through dynamics and tonal coloring. Nothing is overburdened. Each piece retains a certain transparency. Andrea Isenegger confidently brings together jazz gestures and folk and rock contours in her own personal atmosphere. The timbre of Bill Frisell resonates, but without his contortions. She presents her own unique melodies coupled with an individual tonal aesthetic. Her sound is gentle and clear without being cloying. Simon Iten (b) and Lukas Mantel (dr) provide the music with contours and plasticity. Iten is a melodicist. His walking-lines could often just as well be guitar solos. This is not coincidental: in two pieces he provides acoustic-guitar accompaniments. Drummer Lukas Mantel is a percussionist with a sense of the space between the sounds. He heats things up with rolls or changes the direction with intentional interventions. Sometimes he provides only a subtle undercurrent, always aware of just what's necessary. This trio has been playing together away from the stage for four years. Now it's appearing confidently on the horizon, riding its wave with an understated, but exceptional debut album. Pirmin Bossart (translated by Scott Sandel)