nik bärtsch

„Bärtsch’s mysterious music will be around for a lot longer than the quick fix that majority taste seems to clamour for.“
Stuart Nicholson, The Observer (UK)

NEW RELEASE NOVEMBER 2024

Nik Bärtsch's Ronin, SPIN, 2024.

Ritual Groove Music 15 RRR

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Nik Bärtsch, LISTENING - Music, Movement, Mind, 2021

NEW RELEASE MAY 2021

Nik Bärtsch, LISTENING - Music, Movement, Mind, 2021.

A useless guide for everything.
Nik Bärtsch, in collaboration with Andrea Pfisterer.
Lars Müller Publishers.

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Next Events

  • 10.11.2024 MOKKA Thun (CH)
    RONIN: Bärtsch, Sha, Rast, Keller
    INFOS TICKET
  • 11.11.2024 MONTAGS 1041, live at EXIL and streamed by YOURSTAGE.LIVE
    RONIN: Bärtsch, Sha, Rast, Keller
    INFOS TICKET
  • 18.11.2024 MONTAGS 1042, live at EXIL and streamed by YOURSTAGE.LIVE
    MOBILE: Bärtsch, Sha, Stocker
    INFOS TICKET
  • 22.11.2024 EFG London Jazz Festival, Wigmore Hall (UK)
    Piano Duo together with Tania Giannouli
    INFOS TICKET
  • 23.11.2024 Piano Jazz Festival, Kalisz (PL)
    Piano Duo together with Tania Giannouli
    INFOS TICKET

NIK BÄRTSCH SOLO

RITUAL GROOVE MUSIC, the title of my first CD, also points to the fundamental concept of my 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. The band becomes an integral organism - like an animal, a habitat, an urban space. One must think with ears and hands. read more…

RONIN

With the zen-funk quartet RONIN founded in 2001, Nik Baertsch proceeds with the work on his RITUAL GROOVE MUSIC together with Kaspar Rast (drums), Thomy Jordi (he replaced Björn Meyer on the bass in 2011) and Sha (bass/contrabass clarinet. Percussionist Andi Pupato joined the band 2002-2012). Their music consistently follows the same aesthetic vision under various instrumental guises: creating the maximum effect by minimal means. read more…

MOBILE

The group MOBILE develops integral musical concepts within a ritualistic framework. The performance of the music is usually combined with a multi-medial set-up of the surrounding space. read more…

MONTAGS

The EXIL in Zurich offers a permanent basis for MONTAGS – a platform for the continuous work on the RITUAL GROOVE MUSIC by Nik Bärtsch, as well as for a wider community interested in the related musical ideas. Workshops and concerts take place every Monday. Montags is led by Nik Bärtsch. read more…