In equal parts a composer of electronic music, internet artist and classical guitarist, John-Robin Bold occupies a unique place in today’s art and music scenes. As firmly rooted in the tradition of classical music as in the exploration of online media, Bold’s oeuvre contains albums, concerts, videos, interactive art and installations. Despite this formal diversity, a serious engagement with each medium’s history and specific expressivity characterises his approach.

John-Robin Bold’s musical output moves between making electronic listening music and performing guitar concerts of mostly renaissance and baroque music. His electronic compositions and live-performances are renowned for their harmonic modulation, intricate textures and gripping dramaturgy. Often sampling both sacred and pop music, he contrasts sound masses ranging from abstraction, sonority and noise derived from music throughout the ages.

In 2018 he first developed the concept of website-specific art, illustrating the site-specific nature of engaging with any art through the internet. The influence of internet platforms on our aesthetic faculties presents a historical shift to art, which his acclaimed projects ‘SoundCloud Gazing’ and ‘Audio Library of a Viewable World’ address with a rare poignance. These website-specific works are not only based on SoundCloud and YouTube, but turn platform features into interactive aspects – comments, algorithms, subtitles, etc. become substantial parts of the art itself.

A staunchly independent artist whose work falls outside the agenda of institutions, John-Robin Bold has worked with a number of labels and organisations that include Mille Plateaux (John-Robin Bold, 2020), mappa (Symposium Musicum, 2023), Verdurin (upcoming) and Zentrum für Netzkunst (SoundCloud Gazing, 2022).