Deaf Bach

In response to the post on the Portsmouth Sinfonia a couple of days ago, here are a selection of tracks from Artur Zmijewski's Deaf Bach recordings. Zmijewski, a Polish visual artist, is known well for his work with disabled people.

The recordings are the result of two projects - "Lekcja śpiewu" / "Singing Lesson" (2001), performed in the Augsburg-Evangelican church in Warsaw, and "Lekcja śpiewu 2" / "Singing Lesson 2" (2003), performed at the Leipzig Cathedral.

For both projects, Zmijewski selected a group of deaf and near-deaf young people, and formed a choir. With none of the group having sung before, it was an introduction not just to choral performance but singing in any sense. Accompanied by trained musicians, an occasional soprano and a conductor, "Singing Lesson" saw the group perform Jan Maklakiewicz's Polish Mass, while "Singing Lesson 2" interprets a J. S. Bach cantata. Also included is a solo piece by one of the group, 'I love you', sung by Anja Fessel.

The result is astounding and magnificently cacophonous, managing to explore the limits and potentials of disability both humorously and respectfully. And it's an interesting counterpoint to Gavin Bryars' purposefully chaotic Portsmouth Sinfonia..


J.S. Bach - Wir eilen


Jan Maklakiewicz - Kyrie




Anja Fessel - I love you (lyrics below)


I love you
I can not forget you
Every days and every hours i remember about you
I love you
The world can not hear
Without you I have lose, because you belong me

I can sleep by you, because you love me
You can say me, how many feeling need you and how you feel me
Without you I can not live

I love you...

When you go somewhere else, then you are not by me
I do not love you, because you have another
You can not say me, how very you feel
Without you I can not live

I love you

I love you
I thought you very
Come to me back!
Without you I can not live

Innes / Betjeman / Doggerel Bank

For all the many tracks sung by little kids in too cute high pitch voices, this will forever remain my gristly little favourite. Culled from the Miniatures compilation (1980 Cherry Red), this is Neil Innes (Monty Python / Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)and his then six year old son, doing the most vicious interpretation of Slade's 'Cum On Feel The Noize' I've ever heard -- Girls stab the boys!


Neil Innes & son - Cum On Feel The Noize


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More quintessential Englishness, the joys of Sir John Betjeman. Some cad of a producer decided to pair the then Poet Laureate up with arranger Jim Parker in the mid-70s, a move that could've gone so wrong, and ended up gemlike. Lust, approaching old age, and postwar England, wrapped in gloriously appropriate accompaniment and paced like a dream.




Sir John Betjeman - Narcissus
..a tale of prepubescent love for his 'bosom boyfriend'


Sir John Betjeman - On A Portrait Of A Deaf Man



Betjeman on bitumen, extolling virtues of tarmac - 'Oh smother me in viscous bitumen!'


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Finally, a couple of tracks from Doggerel Bank's 1975 album Mister Skillicorn Dances, another record worked on by Jim Parker, and in a happy circle, released on Charisma Records, who also released the Pythons. Delightful spoken-word, London-centric eccentricity.


Doggerel Bank - Crazy Lips


Doggerel Bank - Valediction (Rondeau Redouble)

Azam Khan, guru

Azam Khan emerged from the Liberation War of Bangladesh of 1971, as a freedom fighter turned pop star. Lanky and bearded like all the best revolutionaries, he became one of the first Bangla pop heroes, first with his band Uchcharon, and later as a solo artist. With few real concert venues, the band swiftly rose from playing hotel ballrooms and university lecture halls to being broadcast on Bangladesh television in 1972.



In a string of super awesome pop songs, his lyrics blended the socio-political tumult of post-war Bangladesh with simpler themes of love and family, and he quickly became one of those much loved musicians adopted by pretty much everyone, old and young. He's now affectionately referred to by his fans simply as 'guru'.


Three tracks from his heyday, late 70s. Rough translations follow the titles below, in brackets.


Azam Khan - Jibonta Bhora (Life is full)


Azam Khan - Ashi Ashi Bole (I am coming, coming (but not coming yet))


Azam Khan - Obhimani (The emotional person)