Simon Popp

Simon Popp is nominated for the German Jazz Award 2025!

The Munich-based percussionist and composer Simon Popp makes his way through polyrhythmic structures with a keen sense of timing and mood. He contrasts earthy and airy sounds, blurs the boundaries between the electronic and acoustic worlds and thus makes a powerful statement about what contemporary percussion music can be today: A rich soundscape that makes use of the full range of all percussion instruments. Sometimes driving, sometimes meditative.

Popp, also known as a member of the jazz quintet FAZER, studied jazz percussion in Munich and with his music creates his very own category of non-category, ” […] which draws its strength precisely from the fact that it deliberately does not clearly locate itself between jazz, pop or world music. And this is precisely what makes Simon Popp one of the most exciting drummers in Munich at the moment.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). With his other projects 9ms, POEJI and POLYGONIA & POPP, he creates interfaces between jazz, ambient and electronic music.

In 2023, Simon Popp was awarded the City of Munich’s Music Prize.

“Simon Popp is one of Fazer’s drummers. Influenced by percussionist of the east he just did his thing and recorded an album of immense deepness and rhythmical convergence. I’m collecting these obscure drummer solo records for years and then a young men comes along and makes them all sound boring.”
Growing Bin Records 2019

“The Munich based musician weaves a tapestry of wondroud melodies and percussive elements across a record which is as deep and poetic as it is danceable.”
Ramson Note 2021

With TRIO, Munich percussionist Simon Popp presents his first joint album with percussionists Sebastian Wolfgruber and Flurin Mück – a sonic fusion of three personalities into a single, breathing instrument.
Inspired by the Japanese Kintsugi philosophy, in which breaks are not hidden but gilded, TRIO celebrates the imperfect, the togetherness, the playful. The compositions were created organically in the studio – small rhythmic ideas were further developed, interwoven and transformed collectively.
The album combines detailed percussion with global timbres: drums, singing bowls, wooden blocks, gongs, piezo electronics and subtle effects merge to create a warm, open sound. Despite its rhythmic complexity, TRIO always remains accessible – a work full of energy, depth and humanity.
TRIO is not a classic drum album – it is a musical meditation on connection, rhythm and the beauty of imperfection.
The cracks are not hidden. They are filled with gold.

Simon Popp – TRIO
Release date: October 17, 2025
Label: Squama Recordings

Together with the two exceptional drummers Flurin Mück (CH) and Sebastian Wolfgruber (DE), Popp has already presented his drum trio on numerous stages such as Überjazz Hamburg, Leipziger Jazztage and Studio 2 of Bayerischer Rundfunk. The drum trio, led by Munich-based drummer and composer Simon Popp, plays its way through polyrhythmic structures with a fine sense of timing and mood. It contrasts earthy and airy sounds, blurs the boundaries between the electronic and acoustic worlds and thus makes a powerful statement about what contemporary percussion music can be today: A rich soundscape that makes use of the full range of all percussion instruments. Sometimes driving, sometimes meditative.

Popp’s albums LAYA (2019), DEVI (2021) and BLIZZ (2022) were well received internationally, especially in the vinyl scene. The Line Of Best Fit praised his work: “This is music you can get totally lost in, where the lines between organic and electric are blurred so as to be indistinguishable.” In addition to recognition from magazines such as Clash, Juno and Ransom Note, Bleep felt reminded of the music of experimental greats Philip Glass and Steve Reich.

“Simon Popp (…) is a German drummer who has taken the art of percussion to new extremes, using a plethora of different instruments – balaphon, idiophones, steel drums and all kinds of bells and bowls – and production techniques to create individual, original music.”
Juno 2021

“With “Blizz”, Popp opens up a whole new category of non-category. Whether it’s jazz or world music or pop – it doesn’t matter anyway. Simon Popp has a pretty precise idea of the world of sound into which he invites us.”
BR Classic 2022