Nik Bärtsch

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Nik Bärtsch 2008 in Innsbruck
Nik Bärtsch 2008 in Innsbruck
Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Continuum (Nik Bärtsch's Mobile)
  CH 66 03/27/2016 (1 week)
Awase (Nik Bärtsch's Ronin)
  CH 44 05/13/2018 (3 weeks)

Nik Bärtsch (born August 3, 1971 in Zurich ) is a Swiss pianist , composer and music producer .

Life

Bärtsch received lessons in jazz piano and drums from the age of eight . He finished his music studies at the Zurich University of the Arts in 1997 with a classical piano diploma. He then studied philosophy, linguistics and musicology at the University of Zurich from 1998 to 2001 . Since 1993 he has worked with Daniel Mouthon and Philipp Schaufelberger , from 1996 he played in the Gershwin Piano Quartet founded by André Desponds . In 1997 he went on tour with Harald Haerter . In the same year he founded the Ensemble Mobile with Mats Eser (since 2013 Nicolas Stocker ), Kaspar Rast and guests.

From 2000 to 2003 Bärtsch held a teaching position for practical aesthetics at the Winterthur University of Music in Zurich, and since 2007 at the Zurich University of the Arts.

In 2001 Bärtsch went on tour with a solo project; since the same year he has been playing in his «Zenfunk-Quartet» Ronin (with Kaspar Rast , Björn Meyer [Thomy Jordi since 2011] and Andi Pupato [2002–2012]), which was then expanded to a quintet with Sha and with which he started performed at numerous international festivals such as the North Sea Jazz Festival , Portland Jazz Festival , London Jazz Festival and JazzFest Berlin . Bärtsch describes his music as "ritual groove music".

Since 2005 he has been under contract with the label ECM Records . In 2006 he founded his own label, Ronin Rhythm Records.

Bärtsch is a founding member and co-owner of the Exil Club in Zurich (since 2009). Together with Judd Greenstein and Etienne Abelin , he is artistic director of the indie classic festival Apples and Olives in Zurich (since 2014).

Bärtsch lives with his family in Zurich .

Music and projects

Nik Bärtsch at a concert in Wuppertal 2016
The band Ronin at a concert in Wuppertal 2016

The band Nik Bärtsch's Ronin is his core project. In addition to the weekly performances as part of his concert series on Mondays at the Zurich Club Exil , he has toured with Ronin in Europe, Asia and the USA. He has already recorded nine records with Ronin, the last four of which were released on the ECM Records label.

Bärtsch's acoustic formation Mobile occurs mainly in connection with installations. This is how, for example, the BLUE trilogy, each with 36-hour live concerts, or SEE, a 4-hour live performance in collaboration with the Zurich architects oos, came about.

Commissioned compositions are u. a. known from the ensemble für neue musik zurich , the Zurich Chamber Orchestra , the New York ensemble Bang on a Can and the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet. Furthermore, Bärtsch was in collaborations a. a. seen with the Swiss fashion designer Christa de Carouge , the Butoh dancer Imre Thormann and the Japanese dancer Hideto Heshiki. He also created the background music for the Swiss TV program Swissview ; His music can also be heard in the film Sounds and Silence .

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

Prizes and awards

At the European jazz competition of the Leverkusener Jazztage 1995, Bärtsch reached the finals with Menico Ferrari's Groove Cooperative . In 1999 and 2002 he received the UBS Culture Foundation's advancement award. In 2002 he was sponsored with the Werkjahr of the City of Zurich. In 2004 he received the culture award of the municipality of Zollikon (recognition award). In 2007 he received a composition commission from Pro Helvetia for a music and dance program with Hideto Heshiki. Bärtsch was also supported by Pro Helvetia as part of the priority jazz funding 2007–2009. In 2015 he was nominated for the Swiss Music Prize of the Federal Office for Culture . In 2016 he won the “Rising Stars Keyboards” category of DownBeat magazine .

Publications

  • Don Li Gen (Tonus-Music Records 1999)
  • Mobile: Ritual Groove Music (Tonus-Music Records or Ronin Rhythm Records 2001)
  • Ronin: Randori (Tonus-Music Records or Ronin Rhythm Records 2002)
  • Solo: Hishiryo (Tonus-Music Records or Ronin Rhythm Records 2002)
  • Ronin: Live (Tonus-Music Records or Ronin Rhythm Records 2003)
  • Ronin: Rea (Tonus-Music Records or Ronin Rhythm Records 2004)
  • Ronin: Aer (Tonus-Music Records or Ronin Rhythm Records 2004)
  • Ronin: Stoa ( ECM 2006)
  • Ronin: Holon (ECM 2008)
  • Ronin: Llyrìa (ECM 2010)
  • Ronin: Live (ECM 2012)
  • Mobile: Continuum (ECM 2016)
  • Ronin: Awase (ECM 2018)

literature

  • Biographical lexicon of Swiss jazz . In: Bruno Spoerri (ed.): Jazz in Switzerland: history and stories . Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0739-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Chart discography Switzerland
  2. ↑ rawness and the will to abstract. Nik Bärtsch website (PDF; 95 kB). Retrieved January 27, 2020
  3. ↑ Module - on my musical conception ( Memento from September 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Website by Nik Bärtsch. Retrieved January 27, 2020
  4. ^ Winners, nominees 2015 ( Memento from February 17, 2019 in the Internet Archive ). Swiss music award
  5. ^ Washington, Iyer Among Winners in 2016 DownBeat Critics Poll. In: DownBeat Magazine. July 1, 2016, accessed January 27, 2020 .

Web links

Commons : Nik Bärtsch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Bärtsch, Nik
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd August 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich