Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile

Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch, known for his zen funk sound, celebrates the release of Continuum, the new ECM album by his band Mobile.

Founded in 1997, Mobile is effectively the wellspring of Bärtsch’s ritualistic approach to music making, nourished by the concepts of reduction and repetition as well as Bärtsch’s fascination with Japanese culture. Mobile interweaves textures from jazz, funk, new music, minimalism, and ritual and sacred music. Bärtsch and his partners Kaspar Rast, Sha, and Nicolas Stocker aim for an energetic group sound rather than displays of solo virtuosity.

While the music on Continuum strictly follows Bärtsch’s compositional logic it also conveys a sensuous physicality, through the interplay of structure and surprise, pathos and irony.

Nik Bärtsch: piano, composition

• Sha: bass clarinet and contrabass clarinet
• Kaspar Rast: drums, percussion
• Nicolas Stocker: drums, tuned percussion
• Daniel Eaton: light design

Artist Biography

Nik Bärtsch is a Swiss pianist and composer. He took piano and percussion lessons beginning when he was eight years old and subsequently studied at the city’s Musikhochschule and university.

As Bärtsch’s interest in composition grew and he immersed himself in the practices of John Cage and Morton Feldman, his attraction to live jazz waned. In 1997 he created an acoustic group, Mobile, which “develops integral musical concepts within a musical framework.” The band Ronin (named after the freelance warriors in Japanese history who served no master) was born in 2001 out of Bärtsch’s desire for a group that could also work in jazz clubs and “play with more power.”

Ronin has released three studio albums on ECM to date, Stoa (2006), Holon (2008) and Llyrìa (2010), as well as a double CD, Live (2012), which anthologizes a suite of concert performances from their appearances around the world between 2009 and 2011.

Musical performances at the Rubin Museum are made possible by the Carlo and Micól Schejola Foundation.

Jazz at the Rubin is made possible with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Yamaha is the official piano of the Rubin Museum of Art.