Nik Bärtsch’s RONIN

No matter the genre, country, or scene, very few bands find and ride a groove as hard and emphatically as Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin. Founded a quarter-century ago by the Swiss pianist deeply invested in Japanese culture and American minimalism and funk, Ronin has long pursued a seemingly simple but incredibly challenging task: to find a compelling rhythmic structure, repeat it like a latticework pattern, and dance hard enough within its borders to make music that never seems to sit still. For the last 20 years, Ronin has played every Monday night at his own Zurich club called EXIL, their performances all exercises in refining what they call “ritual groove music” as they develop numbered pieces they term modules. The resulting chemistry is uncanny.

After 15 very productive years on ECM, Ronin triumphantly returned to its early independent status for 2024’s delightful Spin. Having slimmed down to a quartet for 2018’s Awase, Ronin enlisted bassist Jeremias Keller, unlocking a new rapport alongside cofounding drummer Kaspar Rast and longtime saxophonist Sha. Bärtsch even wrote “Modul 66” for Keller’s full tone and charging approach to rhythm; for 10 minutes, the quartet swings between linked rhythmic units, Bärtsch’s piano, Keller’s bass, and Rast’s drums all seeming to bounce off one another like sunlight hitting water. Sha is a tremendously patient player, his restraint allowing his long tones to stretch like the string that binds the band’s Rube Goldberg-like interplay together. Ronin is a deceptively nuanced group, where energy delightfully masks the complexity of the designs.