Nik Bartsch's Ronin Spring US/Canada tour

[GA Russell]

ECM

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin - Awase

release date: May 4, 2018

 

Nik Bärtsch: piano; Sha: bass clarinet, alto saxophone;

Thomy Jordi: bass; Kaspar Rast: drums

 

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin on tour:

 

May 4 - Montreal, Que @ L'Astral

May 6 - New York, NY @ le poisson rouge

May 8 - Philadelphia, PA @ World Café Live

May 9 - Washington DC @ Blues Alley

May 10 - Chicago, IL @ Constellation

further dates in preparation...

 

"Awase", a term from martial arts, means "moving together" in the sense of matching energies, a fitting metaphor for the dynamic precision, tessellated grooves and balletic minimalism of Nik Bärtsch's Ronin.  Six years have passed since the last release from the Swiss group. In the interim, trimmed from quintet to quartet size and with new bassist Thomy Jordi fully integrated, Ronin has become a subtly different band. Bärtsch speaks of a new-found freedom and flexibility in the approach to the material, with "greater transparency, more interaction, more joy in every performance".   The freedom here extends to revisiting early Bärtsch modules alongside new compositions including, for the first time on a Ronin record, a piece by reedman Sha. Awase was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the south of France in October 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher.  

[mjazzg]

Great band and great live experience

[CJ Shearn]

Just got a promo of the forthcoming album the other day.  I really like this band, and the pushing the Glass/Reichian minimalism to new places, and the organic flow in which subtle changes occur.  Bartsch's love of martial arts and Japanese culture is very evident in the shifts in what this band does.  "Continuum" with Mobile was nice too.

[Guy Berger]

I have heard only one of their albums - Holon - and tbh I don’t like their sound/style.  Totally willing to acknowledge it’s a blind spot.

[mjazzg]

It's such an idiosyncratic sound/style that I think many, many listeners will react similarly. Definitely an acquired taste

It's also got next to nothing to do with Jazz and whilst repetition is important I hear less direct influence from the Minimalists, as suggested above, but more from Techno and other dance musics - see the work of Moritz von Oswald, Alva Noto et al.

Live, it's hypnotic (or probably repetitively boring, depending on the listener!) and impressive that it's all done without samples/tapes etc

[Guy Berger]

4 hours ago, mjazzg said:

It's such an idiosyncratic sound/style that I think many, many listeners will react similarly. Definitely an acquired taste

It's also got next to nothing to do with Jazz and whilst repetition is important I hear less direct influence from the Minimalists, as suggested above, but more from Techno and other dance musics - see the work of Moritz von Oswald, Alva Noto et al.

Live, it's hypnotic (or probably repetitively boring, depending on the listener!) and impressive that it's all done without samples/tapes etc

I think the slickness/smoothness of their sound is more of a problem for me than the repetitiveness.

[mjazzg]

11 minutes ago, Guy Berger said:

I think the slickness/smoothness of their sound is more of a problem for me than the repetitiveness.

Yeah, I can get that. In fact I think it was as much about the polished, slick sound as the musical style when i said idiosyncratic upthread. Although they are both part of the package, honed over hours of live playing in Bartsch's club space. The earlier albums on his own label are even more polished and diamond hard sounding

The live album on ECM has a more organic, less studio polished sound if you ever felt so inclined but it's still clockwork precise

[CJ Shearn]

8 hours ago, mjazzg said:

It's such an idiosyncratic sound/style that I think many, many listeners will react similarly. Definitely an acquired taste

It's also got next to nothing to do with Jazz and whilst repetition is important I hear less direct influence from the Minimalists, as suggested above, but more from Techno and other dance musics - see the work of Moritz von Oswald, Alva Noto et al.

Live, it's hypnotic (or probably repetitively boring, depending on the listener!) and impressive that it's all done without samples/tapes etc

I can hear the influence of electronic/techno musics as well, and you are right, what the music has to do with jazz is open to however one defines the idiom (which is nearly impossible these days the more ECM's I listen to).  What I like are the subtle shifts over time,the grooves and that's what got me about "Holon" which was the first album I heard many years back.  Actually before I return to "Awase", the forthcoming, let me pull out the live album, good idea!

[mjazzg]

10 hours ago, CJ Shearn said:

what the music has to do with jazz is open to however one defines the idiom (which is nearly impossible these days the more ECM's I listen to).  

It's decades since ECM has been anything like a Jazz label so I'm not sure defining any idiom by the output of that or any other label gets us anywhere

[CJ Shearn]

4 hours ago, mjazzg said:

It's decades since ECM has been anything like a Jazz label so I'm not sure defining any idiom by the output of that or any other label gets us anywhere

Fair enough, though the release of that Jarrett "After The Fall" and Arild Andersen's excellent "In House Science" are probably the most "jazz" like things on the label I've heard in recent memory.  The Ronin stuff is great though, just getting swept up in the hypnotic qualities as you said, with spaces for improvisation/variation neatly woven in, though "clockwork precise" was a wonderful way to put it.

[mjazzg]

Yeah, agree on the "woven". If you can see them live, do so. It's even better than on disc!

Enjoy your promo of Awase, lucky you to have it early. Jealousy doesn't become me but sometimes...

[GA Russell]

“Awase”, a term from martial arts, means “moving together” in the sense of matching energies, a fitting metaphor for the dynamic precision, tessellated grooves and balletic minimalism of Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin.  Six years have passed since the last release from the Swiss group. In the interim, trimmed from quintet to quartet size and with new bassist Thomy Jordi fully integrated, Ronin has become a subtly different band. Bärtsch speaks of a new-found freedom and flexibility in the approach to the material, with “greater transparency, more interaction, more joy in every performance”.   The freedom here extends to revisiting early Bärtsch modules alongside new compositions including, for the first time on a Ronin record, a piece by reedman Sha. Awase was recorded at Studios La Buissonne in the south of France in October 2017 and produced by Manfred Eicher.  In Concert May 4 Montreal, Que (L’Astral) May 5 Boston, MA (The Red Room at Cafe 939/Berklee College of Music) May 6 New York, NY (Le poisson rouge) May 8 Philadelphia, PA (World Café Live) May 9 Washington DC (Blues Alley) May 10 Chicago, IL (Constellation)

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