Nik Bärtsch is a pianist from Swiss who initialized Nick Bärtsch’s Mobile and ‘Nick Bärtsch’s Ronin’. These two bands are part of a project that realizes the musical vision of Bärtsch: Ritual Groove Music. Already the genre term reveals the basic concept. It’s the fusion of Jazz and ritual melodies and rhythms of mainly Japanese roots. This imagination is due on three key ideas: the repetition, the variation and the minimalism. The main roll in the music takes the piano that plays different themes in repetitions and variations, seldom with significant melodious transfiguration, rather with the stylistic device of accent shifting and phrasing. Besides the piano appear percussion, alto saxophone and bass clarinet. They illustrate the piano fundament in subtle ways that immensely conduce to the gloomy and mystic atmosphere, but on times also direct and stirring.
One origin facet of the project is an audiovisual performance that sometimes reaches over 36 hours. The project combines
the possibilities of modern visual media with the structure, the construction of the rooms they use to touch the audience in an extraordinary way.
The impact on listeners differentiates between tediousness, fear and pure emotional enthusiasm. For me Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile is a unique musical experience.
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Example song 1 (Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile: Modul 11)
Example song 2 (Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin: Modul 15_9)
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