Simon Bahr

Counterfeits, Cover-Ups & Karaoke is composed of various tiny elements of sound or notation stolen from other peoples music. To cover up this massive theft, Adele and I try to distract your attention by offering counterfeits of familiar musical brands and making the piano sing karaoke… Will we get away with it?

After having worked with stolen sounds in Well-Planned Theft, where all sound sources and processing steps are documented in meticulous detail in the score, I decided to apply this approach to instrumental notation as well in this piece. All material played on the piano is taken from other piano pieces, which are referenced in a bibliography. The only transformations used are tempo changes, dynamic changes, transpositions, reversing the order of notes and filtering notes out.

The Voice of Laptop is an album that features a synthesized voice accompanied by a hybrid ensemble. It 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. Along the way, Laptop processes and reworks musical data fragments of various genres and languidly surrenders to digital nostalgias and fantasies.

Tracklist

Updatedownloadbackuptime
Superuser
Deepfake
Debugging My Love
Laptop Running Hot
ILOVEYOU
Hibernate
Internal Speaker
I‘m > Σ(my parts)
1 Upload 2 Eternity

Credits

Béla Bluche – electric bass (1, 3, 5, 9), double bass (2, 4, 10)
Jing Chen – viola (2, 4, 8, 10)
Leon Dehne – alto saxophone (2, 5, 7), tenor saxophone (3, 8, 10)
Filip Erakovic – accordeon (6)
Heni Hyunjung Kim – bass clarinet (6)
Sebastian Langer – clarinet (2, 3, 7, 8, 10)
Laptop – synthesized voice (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10)
Paul Lüpfert – trombone (2, 3, 5, 8, 10)
Carlotta Ribbe – vibraphone (4)
Felix Riedel – trumpet (2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10)
Jonathan Schierhorn – drumset (1, 3, 5, 9)
Dimitry Stavrianidi – flute/piccolo (6)
Rebekka Stephan – cello (2, 4, 8, 10)
Frederik Taubenheim – electric guitar (1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 10)
Robert Alan Wheatley – cello (6)
Aaron Wolharn – flute (2, 3, 7, 8, 10)
Tamon Yashima – electronic wind instrument (6)

Simon Bahr – composition/production/mixing
drip – artwork
Arthur Jogerst – recording engineering (2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10)
Tim Pauli – mixing

The Voice of Laptop was released on Narval in August 2024.

Counterfeits, Cover-Ups & Karaoke

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The Voice of Laptop

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Library Music No. 1: Penguins, etc.

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