Continuum (Nik Bärtsch album)

Continuum is an album by Swiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch's Mobile recorded in Switzerland in 2015 and released 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
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

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

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