The second ECM album by Swiss composer-pianist Nik Bärtsch and his band Ronin reaps the benefits of the two years of roadwork undertaken since the recording of “Stoa” “We’ve simply played a lot more,” Bärtsch emphasises: “The development of the band as an organism is a very important force for the music. It is through playing that the pieces I write grow and bloom.” The distinguishing characteristics of the music are consistent: the modular constructions, the polymetric pulses, the complex interlocking patterns and repetitive motifs. Bärtsch speaks of the band’s way of working as a “spiral continuum” rather than the newness-at-all-costs priorities of the Western avant-garde. Yet it is clear enough that a conceptual leap has been made in Ronin’s music, for the band’s sound is simultaneously looser and indissoluble, without any relinquishing of the grip upon the groove.