Continuum (Nik Bärtsch album)

Continuum is an album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's Mobile recorded in Switzerland in 2015 and released 2016 on the ECM label.[1]

Continuum
Studio album by
Nik Bärtsch's Mobile
ReleasedApril 22, 2016
RecordedMarch 2015
StudioAuditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano
GenreJazz
Length68:19
LabelECM
ECM 2464
ProducerManfred Eicher
Nik Bärtsch chronology
Nik Bärtsch's Ronin Live
(2012)
Continuum
(2016)
Awase
(2018)

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [2]
PopMatters          [3]
All About Jazz     [4]

The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek states "Continuum is European jazz rife with funkiness; it's just more specific sound. It may require a closer listen, at least initially, but once experienced, its depth and constancy are unmistakable".[2] They also selected it as one of their Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016.[5]

PopMatters' John Garratt said "While their playing can be every bit as spritely as Ronin, Continuum captures Mobile in a low, pensive light. This isn’t to say that the music isn’t as successful overall, it’s just that establishing a warm sense of intimacy with it is going to take a little work on your part".[3]

All About Jazz reviewers said, "With its variety of styles, Continuum is the best of Mobile's albums to date, despite the very high bar set from the beginning"[4] and "there's little doubt that those who've become fans of Ronin's more eminently groove-laden music will be (if they weren't already) ready for this group's richer compositional rigor...for whom the term Continuum is, indeed, wholly appropriate for its broader-spectrum'd musical treasures".[6]

London Jazz News' John L. Walters noted "Bärtsch's music is always urgent but never in a hurry, and his sidemen follow the leader’s calm self-discipline. What improvisation there is takes place within the broad structures of the compositions – Mobile may not be a ‘blowing’ band in the jazz sense of the word, but it interprets the music as if it were".[7]

In JazzTimes, Steve Greenlee wrote "There is a clean, icy quality to this music — a hallmark of Scandinavian jazz — that invites comparisons to electronica and to the work of Philip Glass and film composer Thomas Newman... Continuum, beginning to end, is mesmerizing".[8]

Track listing

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All compositions by Nik Bärtsch.

  1. "Modul 29_14" - 8:59
  2. "Modul 12" - 9:02
  3. "Modul 18" - 8:03
  4. "Modul 5" - 8:32
  5. "Modul 60" - 9:27
  6. "Modul 4" - 5:26
  7. "Modul 44" - 10:23
  8. "Modul 8_11" - 8:32

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ "Continuum". ECM Records. Retrieved 2024-07-26.
  2. ^ a b Jurek, Thom. Nik Bärtsch – Continuum > Review at AllMusic. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  3. ^ a b Garratt, John (April 27, 2016). "Nik Bärtsch's Mobile: Continuum". popmatters.com. Retrieved September 14, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Ackermanm, Karl (March 31, 2016). "Nik Bärtsch's Mobile: Continuum". Musical reviews. All About Jazz.
  5. ^ Allmusic Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016
  6. ^ Kelman, April 15, 2016
  7. ^ Walters, J. L. August 8, 2016
  8. ^ Greenlee, S. JazzTimes Review, June 2016