Nik Bärtsch's Ronin

Trance jazz? Progressive jazz? Future jazz? Whatever Nik and his crew of talented musicians conjure it IS progressive and when jazz was pushing the envelope this might have been inducted into the genre's periphery.
This ensembles music isn't jazz in the common traditional, be-bop, big band, fusion styles but rather its own mold channeling minimalism I can hear a Terry Riley/Reich influence, eastern modalities, European classic music contours and incredibly intricate rhythmic arrangements that would mesmerize a die hard prog fan.
Although the music on the two album I own Stoa and Holon would not be accessible to anyone into Spyro Gyra the music is indeed not only fresh sounding but primarily acoustic based if you leave the electric bass and Rhodes out of the equation. Its funky in a mathematically rhythmic sort of way and intensely dynamic with soft single plucked notes on a bass or piano to a multi frantic interlocking tetris like mayhem. What this music is not is avant-garde(and it would be criminally wrong to call it that) theres always structure and groove injected in the compositions and thats what makes it such a great listen.