The Zurich pianist Nik Bärtsch loves Japanese culture. He calls his band Ronin, after the samurai who has become ownerless, whose greatest asset is his freedom. In the field of tension between freedom and discipline, his "Ritual Groove Music" also unfolds. Bärtsch is already working on it with the Zen-Funk Quartet, founded in 2001. This is not about the fastest possible and as many notes as possible or top soloistic performances. It's about the right tones, sometimes it's about two or three - i.e. the essential tones - from which her music emerges. Around these tones, usually released into the room on the grand piano, a rhythmic figure emerges, then a snarek nall or a cymbal wiped over the broom, plus the bass full and round, or a hotter saxophone phrase. In the music, there are influences from minimal music, funk and rock elements as well as many different rhythms and meters. What the four musicians develop together and bring to life on stage is a universal, sometimes feverish and driving groove that releases a lot of energy and doesn't care about genre boundaries. Ronin thus creates an aesthetic that is stringent on all levels of musical expression.

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