Awase is an album by Nik Bärtsch's Ronin recorded in France in October 2017 and released on ECM May the following year. The quartet features Sha on reeds and rhythm section Thomy Jordi and Kaspar Rast.[1][2]
The PopMatters review by John Garratt noted "Ronin is now a quartet. Percussionist Andi Pupato has left, leaving Kaspar Rast to handle all of the drumming duties. Bassist Björn Meyer has been replaced by Thomy Jordi, meaning that the number of strings used on that particular instrument has dropped by two. The band had to re-train themselves to produce that tight-as-a-knot sound they were already known for. That led to some pleasant discoveries along the way.... The fact that three of Awase's six tracks pulled from Nik Bärtsch's past could give the false impression that he and Ronin are suffering from a creative drought. For other bands, that may be the case. Ronin vibrates on another frequency, where retooling an old song is just as refreshing to the ear as writing a whole new one. Slow evolution is still evolution."[5]
AllMusic's Thom Jurek states, "Awase reveals Bärtsch's aesthetic methodology as instantly recognizable to anyone who has heard it before. That said, he's also expanded its color, texture, and timbral palettes, bringing a more strident physicality into Ronin's skeletal music and extrapolating it in more readily accessible harmonic compositions—without sacrificing the layers of mystery in its heart."[4]
All About Jazz's Mike Jurkovic said, "Play with our heads the music does, though, in a dizzying, grand way, employing simple patterns unconcerned with downbeats or expectations and mantra-like modules (or "Moduls," as Bärtsch chooses to title his works) of sheer minimalist groove that expand, contract and expand again at the whim and will of both composer and players."[3]
Chicago Reader's Peter Margasek observed, "While Awase (ECM) is clearly the product of a leaner combo than that heard on Llyria—with Jordi taking a more rhythmic approach to the bass lines than Meyer—the leader has held fast to his minimalist vision, producing a hypnotic matrix where individual parts move furtively in improvisational flurries. Bartsch calls his work "ritual groove music", and while I'm not sure what the ritual is, there's no missing the groove."[6]
