" data-original-title="" title="">Nik B?rtsch dresses reveals a lot about his music. He steps up to the piano wearing a Samue, the traditional dress of Zen Buddhist monks, and sneakers. One represents a spiritual tradition thousands of years old, requiring the utmost discipline and training to master. The later represents modern casual fun. His Samue reflects the time he spent in a Japanese monastery, the sneakers his weekly Monday night concerts at his club Exil in Zurich.

B?rtsch's music brings these contradictory elements together to create an entirely unique style, often called "zen-funk." The performance of Nik B?rtsch's Ronin at the Bop Stop marked their first time in Cleveland. The group quickly won over the packed crowd, that yelled for and cheered it at every opportunity.

B?rtsch came to Cleveland as part of an international tour promoting his 2018 album Awase (ECM Records, 2018). The album title comes from a Japanese Aikido term to combine different energies. There has never been a better descriptor of B?rtsch's music that sees different rhythms and melodies coming together in a great display of musical discipline. In this discipline there is also freedom, as the musicians can create slight variations on themes of each modul, B?rtsch reduced the Ronin line up from a quintet to a quartet for Awase to foster more improvisation. With fewer players vying for a limited amount of musical space it's easier to experiment, like the difference between a crowded rave where your movement is limited to jumping up and down on a single spot, and a ballroom where you have the space to make more complex motions.

B?rtsch and reed specialist