Simon Bahr

Simon Bahr writes music and thereby explores interconnections between digitality, genre and nostalgia. He studied composition with Michael Edwards and Dietrich Hahne as well as musicology and philosophy in Essen and Bonn. In addition, he participated in courses with Matthew Shlomowitz, George E. Lewis (Darmstädter Ferienkurse), Ann Cleare, Misato Mochizuki (Mixtur, Barcelona), Mark Applebaum (Time of Music, Vitasaari), Franck Bedrossian, Artemi-Maria Gioti (Impuls, Graz) and Alwynne Pritchard (Donaueschinger Musiktage).

Artistically, Simon usually works with a combination of acoustic instruments and electronic sounds, aiming to create hybrid instrumental-digital worlds. Some pieces, e.g. Counterfeits, Cover-Ups & Karaoke (2024), Library Music No. 1: Penguins, etc. (2023), Mixtape (2022) or Remote Control (2022) are characterized by sonic findings from the internet, pop songs or old vinyl records. Eclectic combinations of often very heterogeneous sonic material result in samples that play diffusely with sounds and codes from different genres and eras.

The album The Voice of Laptop (Narval, 2024) combines algorithmic composition with songwriting and acoustic instruments with a singing computer: Over the course of ten songs, Laptop addresses various highs and lows of their virtual existence and finally escapes their physical shell by uploading themselves to the cloud. Even beyond the album, Laptop plays a major role in Simon's compositional work as co-composer, alter ego and imaginary friend. Thus, using own software when composing allows for a collaboration of human and non-human decision-making.

Simon’s electronic and electronic-instrumental pieces have been performed at ZKM Karlsruhe, academy of arts Berlin and Philharmonie Essen. In 2022, Simon was awarded the Bernd Alois Zimmermann scholarship by the city of Cologne, where he is currently pursuing a master's degree in composition with Brigitta Muntendorf and Oxana Omelchuk.