Nik Bärtsch (CH)

Nik Bärtsch is a Swiss pianist, composer and producer. His own trademark sound, the RITUAL GROOVE MUSIC, points out to the fundamental concept of his musical thinking. The music shows a close affinity to architecturally organized space and is governed by the principles of repetition and reduction as well as by interlocking rhythms.
A piece of music can be entered, inhabited like a room. It moves forward and transforms through obsessive circular movements, superimposition of different meters and micro-interplay. The listeners attention is directed toward minimal variations and phrasing.

Bärtsch primarily works in two parallel musical settings: solo, with the acoustic group Mobile and with the ‘zen-funk’ group Ronin.

Mobile plays purely acoustic music, performed as regular concert and in rituals of up to 36 hours, which include lighting- and room design. Ronin, by contrast, is more flexible and plays rhythmically complex compositions that contain elements of jazz, funk and acoustic rock.

Entendre (ECM, 2021) is his first album entirely played on solo acoustic piano, with no overdubs.

Mr Bärtsch makes accrual-based music of clean power and firm insistence. New York Times

Bärtsch’s music of delicious dread is layered, contrapuntal, hypnotic and psychologically fascinating. Downbeat