Nik Bärtsch's Ronin

With the zen-funk quartet RONIN, founded in 2001, Nik Bärtsch is constantly working on his 'Ritual Groove Music'. Together with Jeremias Keller (bass), Kaspar Rast (drums) and Sha (bass clarinet), the Zurich composer and pianist plays music that follows a consistent aesthetic: to achieve maximum effect with minimal means.

Despite the diversity of its influences, this music always reveals its own signature. Although elements from the most diverse musical worlds have found their way into it - from funk to new classical music to the sounds of Japanese ritual music - these forms are not juxtaposed or quoted in a postmodern way, but rather merge into a new style. The result is grooving, tonally and rhythmically highly differentiated music, composed of a few phrases and motifs that are repeatedly combined and superimposed in new and varied ways.

RONIN thus creates an aesthetic that is consistent at all levels of musical expression. Composition, phrasing, sound design, musical attitude and the dramaturgy of the piece together form a whole whose all parts are interrelated.