By Erik Morse
What was Orson Welles’ scene stealing line in The Third Man? Oh yes, it goes like this: "In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed - they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." Never mind that the contraption in question was actually invented in the Black Forest of Baden-Württemberg or that Welles egregiously absented the Zurich-based dada movement from his glib verdict. But this bitch slap at the Swiss’ expense has now become an ecumenical platitude: nothing cool has ever come from the land of Helvetica.
Well, burn down the chalet and throw out the flugelhorn! Composer-pianist Nik Bärtsch and acoustic quintet Ronin have departed from the craggly bluffs of Switzerland and landed on the snobbish jazz shores of America. Despite establishing themselves in the '90s, Bärtsch and Ronin only came to prominent attention in 2006 with Stoa, their first release for experimental jazz label ECM.
No doubt playing on the architectural definition of its title, Stoa was a magnificently open affair with tinkling melodies underpinned by floating, Can-style grooves and large swathes of quiet space. In order to christen Ronin’s new direction, Bärtsch dubbed his sound “zen-funk” with tongue most likely placed firmly in cheek. Reviews at the time compared Stoa’s compositional structures to those of Steve Reich and James Brown, and one critic noted it was “digital-age music performed with analog sensibility.” And, in fact, you can hear within the precise bass ostinatos and repetitive keyboard figures the postmodern electro-jazz of Jaga Jazzist or Squarepusher. No small feat for a cadre of musicians reigning from Alpine country.
Bärtsch’s latest Holon (ECM) reconvenes the Ronin collective and treads a new harmonic and rhythmic territory as unique as it is monomaniacal. While there is a return to the sparse pulses and limpid keyboards fills that made Stoa such a meditative affair, Holon gives ample room for the bass and drums to lock mercilessly, almost arrhythmically, and ride the heaviest moments to climax. Sudden breaks and instrumental eruptions cause funk levity to retreat suddenly into the sinister tonalities of horror soundtrack, breeding something of a Herbie Hancock/John Carpenter monstrosity. Bela Bartok, Harold Budd, Michael Nyman - the influences are all there. The faint percussive buzzes and chimes add something to the Eastern modalities that appear now and then, complicating but enriching the kind of hybrid music Ronin endeavor to create. Consequently, there is a wonderful timeless and decentered feel that is as much millennial avant-garde as pre-War Volksmusik. Some purists might counter that this isn’t jazz at all.
Cucokoos indeed!
Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin performs with the Frequency on Friday, March 7, 8 p.m., at SFJAZZ Discovery Series at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum, Market and Third streets, SF. Admission is $25.
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