Simon Bahr

“Twelve Bar Blues” is based on the consideration that the term blues has referred to very different forms of music at different times in different places. It’s a long way from the origins of the blues to the blues I played myself as a teenager, where it served mainly as a chord scheme to improvise on. Where is the border of the blues? How far can we take it and still call it the blues?

Recorded at Pina Bausch Theater, Folkwang Uni, Essen, on 07.07.2021. Performed by Moena Katsufuji (piano), Dima Rudyk (bass) and Jonathan Schierhorn (drums).

In No-Input-Mixing, the outputs of a mixer are connected to its inputs, creating feedback loops. Various different sounds can emerge, with different volume faders now controlling pitch, rhythm and spectral features of a sound. Fillin’ the Feedback Form confronts this wild and often unpredictabil instrument with highly organised digital algorithms that try to tame it.

@ Kunstverein Wesseling, 19.11.2020, as livestream from Antonia Grubers Solo Exhibition BIPOLAROID DISORDER

My desperate attempt to collect “an internet full of opinions” lead to 995 Pages Of YouTube Comments In Alphabetical Order – at least I tried. Authorship and context are simply erased in this corpus, leaving space for imagination and recombination.

Leave A Comment is build upon these opinions, trying to take them as serious as possible. A selection of comments was made, all including a time-tag linking to their anonymised original point of reference. They were incorporated into the piece, with the music constantly trying to satisfy all articulated wishes.

Everybody is talking. Everybody? No, a small snare drum is patiently listening to all those interfering voices.

@ pina bausch theater, essen-werden, 28.01.2020

popstart deathmatch: katy vs. taylor is an improvised sonic wrestling match for two performers. All sampled sounds - except for the intro - are taken from recordings of katy perry (tim) and taylor swift (simon).

@ CONTAINERKLANG#12 (kgnm), artheater, köln, 01.12.2019

A singing bluetooth speaker is presented on a grotesquely large stage and is illuminated by a video projection composed of black and white planes only: New Playlist is a scenically presented fixed media piece. The playlist was selected exclusively for this special event, but the wifi connection breaks down. Reconnect! Next Track, please!

@ pina bausch theater, essen-werden, 05.07.2019