Logo

Logo

Musical urbanscapes

Philosophy, linguistics and musicology ~ an interesting blend of these rather esoteric streams of study served as the basis of…

Musical urbanscapes

Nik Bartsch (Photo: Facebook)

Philosophy, linguistics and musicology ~ an interesting blend of these rather esoteric streams of study served as the basis of ‘Ecstasy Through Asceticism‘ by talented Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch. His solo performance recently enthralled a select audience at the embassy of Switzerland in New Delhi.

“My thinking and music are based on the tradition of urban space,” says Bärtsch about his style and repertoire, which comes across as an interesting blend of contrasts ~ a unique amalgamation of the conventional with the unconventional. ”

They are not distilled from a national or stylistic tradition but from the universal sound of cities. The city in its roaring diversity requires an ability to focus and concentrate on the essential: to measure one’s actions, to remain silent at the right place.

Advertisement

This music draws its energy from the tension between compositional precision and the selfcircumvention of improvisation. From self-implied restriction stems freedom. Ecstasy through Asceticism.”

Bärtsch began studying piano and percussion at the age of eight and graduated from the Musikhochschule Zürich in 1997. Between 1989 and 2001, he studied philosophy, linguistics and musicology at the University of Zurich.

Despite the tightly organised compositional construction, improvisation plays an important role in Bärtsch’s music. Accentuation, ghost notes and variations within a composition are tossed back and forth, resulting in groove habitats and void musical space of raw poetry. No wonder he won the 2016 “Rising Stars ~ Keyboards” award from US magazine Downbeat.

Advertisement