At the core of the ritual groove music of Swiss pianist Nik Bärtsch is Nik Bärtsch’s pen and his piano. The solo piano curriculum Entendre collects select originals, coded pieces called “Modul” (German for “module”) followed by a number, and played with an intensely personal approach, as there are no other instruments with which to interact.
He brings these moduls to life through his Ronin and Mobile groups, often recycling compositions already used on one band for a different interpretation on the other. Because his moduls are really frameworks or templates rather than conventional songs, Bärtsch can get away with this; each presentation he makes of his composition is virtually a new composition that draws from the same underlying concept.
Entendre is only Nik Bärtsch’s second solo piano album; the first, the Hishiryo: Piano Solo , came about twenty years prior, before Bärtsch signed on with ECM Records and two of the moduls, 5 and 13, are found on both releases. But just as his minimalism evolves over the course of a song, so does the song itself evolve with each time he plays it.
“Modul 58_12” is, as the title implies, a fusion of two written pieces, which demonstrates another ingenuity of Bärtsch’s compositional approach: these modules are made to be highly adaptive to the point that he can fit two together so that they seem conceived as one. The tense persistence of the former piece naturally gives way to the openness of the latter. “Modul 55” greatly rewards patience the way all great minimalist music does. A thread is drawn out — one could even call it a groove — upon which Bärtsch makes minute modulations and brief detours. It’s enough to hold your interest but never overloading the senses.
“Modul 26” is predicated on a short, incessant repeating figure played with the right hand as the left hand acts as the agent of change, directing that figure up and down a scale. The notes, the sequence of notes and the key change but the cadence and the pattern is unshakable. “Modul 13” opens with the low, low notes of the piano, later re-harmonizing up to higher notes but not losing hold of the rhythmic pattern.
“Modul 5” is classic Bärtsch resourcefulness in making something compelling out of one note on one, acoustic instrument. He taps it out like Morse code while manually preparing his piano (putting the free hand on the string he’s striking), slowly opening up that note and adding more, harmonizing ones and building up to something we won’t know until he gets there. He keeps piling on more ideas and complexion while never loosening his grip on the original one.
There is nothing lost when Nik Bärtsch, bandleader, becomes Nik Bärtsch, solo pianist. It’s the same, captivating music, only played through the single vessel of a piano. Through this prism, more is revealed about the genius of Bärtsch’s ‘ritual groove music,’ not less.
Entendre will go on sale March 19, 2021 from ECM Records.
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