CHRISTIAN BAHR

My music and music projects: Ambitious Electro that combines electronic generated sounds and grooving bass lines with emotional melodies and intelligent lyrics (predominant English, but sometimes also in German). Melancholy as a bridge, as a basement for bittersweet songs. I love that feeling to swim in deep(er) emotions. My page presents songs (full versions) of solo projects and lyrics for free. Music is a very important part of my creative engagement. Music means nativeness to me. You start from a point where the basement is circumscribed by a cycle of fifths, and it appears mathematically. But when you perform the first note, you suddenly realize: music is emotion, is emotional and far away from mental dominated arguments and conclusions too. There is no end of that horizon. Everything is possible, only bordered by your own talent and imagination. I learned (and learn) to find my own way of musical expression.

Since 2001 I’m a member of the Electro band BAHR:NEUMANN (vocals, lyrics and together with Dirk Neumann the music); in May 2008 we released our third album HEAVEN SENT with 13 professionally produced songs. Nothing more to say. You find all relevant information on the bandsites. The songs “I Will Follow”, “Ghostland” and “The Needle And The Girl” are songs of this album. Our community of friends and fans gets larger and larger, and we love it. Their belief and continued support is our motivation. So much more than just words.

Sometimes I deal with solo music projects or do additional music teamwork, e. g. in 2006/07, when I created the theme song “3 Days” and the artwork for the great German film noir radio drama “Das Canossa-Virus”.

Abstract and expressionistic painting are my major theme since more than 20 years. More then 400 representative paintings for your pleasure, for sale and for exhibitions you find in my three online galleries. I'm interested in many artistic influences but I'm dealing with my own standpoints and perceptions. And there's no way back from this creative trip. In my painting I'm only a servant of my passions. And I let things slide in an intuitive manner. Whatever will happen, it's a part of a world I need to survive and to realize who I am. Spontaneity is the key, my dominant method. Everything could happen and I let things slide in the moment(s) when my brush touches the canvas. I act intuitive and mostly without any anterior outlines. I don't construct a new world, I only reduce the point of view to our environment. Surplus by abdication -emotional, physical. Naturally it's a subjective standpoint and view. I differentiate between 3 serials of works.

Emotional Worx is a generic term for my more expressionistic paintings. In this case I don't negate the form completely but I reduce the environment and concentrate my view on some small highlights and/or eye-catchers. It's a procedure of discomposition and assembling in a simplified subjective structure: sensual surplus by the use of visual reduction. In the center: physicalness. It is a kind of nativeness. I try to put a spotlight on this essential need (more than just in a sexual way).

My painting studies of the female body (sometimes in motion) in an expressionistic and expressive way. Major theme of my works: PASSION & DISCIPLINE. There's a lot to say about, but not here :) It has to be borderless, intimate, alive. It is my current style and interest in painting, from small outlines to paintings on huge canvas.

Sometimes my mind feels like a cat on a hot tin roof and overflows with a vast number of new ideas and concepts as if I'm starting yet; a question of timing and resources, and of course of creative priorities. But in my opinion drowning in a flood of new ideas is superior to be bored of a deadlock in creativity. Therefore I plan a few upcoming projects, some short-dated and some rather for longer periods. Current project in 2008, with the "Passion And Discipline"-theory as a background: photo vs. painting. It's a new project dealing with the interference between photography (as one major influence to define what's real) and painting (as a subjective view on the world). Nude photography and nude painting in comparision.

Industrial line is a generic term for my more abstract painting. You're right if you make free associations to the Industrial Revolution, to the predominance of an environment affected by a technical thinking and to the exploitation of human resources. This is the thematic painting area of conflict in- and outside of my Industrial Line. These paintings are rough, radical, using largely unmixed colours rich in contrast. And mostly I negate a clear form.

Extracts of the graphical work that I did the last time: booklets, inlays, CDs, flyer and so on. In addition I created my own homepage, the homepage of BAHR:NEUMANN, the corresponding MySpace-sites, and the sites for the radio drama theme song "3 Days" (www.3-days.de) and for the radio drama itself (www.das-canossa-virus.de) and I did the illustrations for the SciFi-radio dramas "Jonas - The Last Detective" (www.jonas-nur-jonas-und-sam.de) and "Captain Ormog" (www.captain-ormog.de). Maybe I did more things, but I don't remember at the moment :) If you have a graphical task for me, please contact me. But beware: visual art is my passion, but I'm also a professional artist, and everything has its price. My time and creative engagement too. Hope you understand what I want to say.

The artwork for the HEAVEN SENT music and art project (some extracts). Photographer: Sven Freitag; photo model: Anne Fleischer; conception and after effects, layout: me. It is a 30 pages digital booklet at all that includes all lyrics and the photo story. The booklet is available for free on the bandsite of BAHR:NEUMANN (pdf-file; rubric: Heaven Sent). I am really proud of the results. The booklet is more than just a visual highlight. It became an important part of the whole HEAVEN SENT project and tells all the thoughts you cannot tell in a song with a length of 4, maybe 5 minutes.