A few years ago, I caught pianist/leader Nik Bartsch’s and his band at the Bakery. The concert was almost as intriguing visually as it was acoustically, as the band played their sets in subdued and dark lighting, adding to the of their highly rhythmic music. Here, you obviously can’t see them, but the one weakness of their music, the incessant repetition with minor changes in melody or mood, is curtailed here as the songs are rarely as long as their album counterparts. When I saw them perform, they essentially filled their 80 minute set with three songs. Here, the two cd set consists of nine songs performed at various concerts in Europe and Japan.
The team of Bartsch/p with Sha/as-bcl, Bjorn Meyer or Thomy Jordi/b, Kaspar Rast/dr and Andi Pupato/perc still perform their rivulets of grooves, but songs like “Modul 45” or “Module 42” (Don’t you love their titles?) expose the subtle variations of color, pitch and melody that are overlooked in the studio. Similar to a Pink Floyd album circa Echoes, the music here lets the gurgling sounds percolate more and more, undulating and slowly building up to a volcanic crescendo before exhalingly letting the music expose itself like a flower at sunset. More penetrating than exciting, per se, but it’s unbeatable for a soundtrack for your spinning class or hiking through the hills. It’s the whispers you hear most clearly here, as opposed to the shouts of so much contemporary music.
ECM Records
www.ecmrecords.com