Des de Moor
DARKNESS AND DISGRACE: THE ALBUM

All words by David Bowie.
All music by David Bowie unless otherwise shown.

Darkness and Disgrace is the brand new album from Des de Moor and Russell Churney, featuring twenty-two inspired versions of songs from the pen of David Bowie. As the title suggests, it takes songs from Bowie's formative years, such as the underrated classic 'London Boys' right through to latterday works such as 'The Buddha of Suburbia', charting not only the development of Bowie's various themes and lyrical motifs, but also the construction of one of the most considerable bodies of work in rock and roll. Darkness and Disgrace simultaneously throws into relief the skill of Des de Moor and Russell Churney as powerful interpreters of one of pop's most absorbing artists.

Darkness and Disgrace began life as a music theatre piece, an intimate and emotionally dynamic musical excursion, tracing Bowie's oeuvre from its roots in the soul-soaked, creatively explosive London of the 1960s and onwards, through a landscape peopled by mod proto Anthony Newley wannabes, sexually-ambivalent science fiction apocalypse prophets, Brel-fixated trash theatre queens, drug-stupefied Cold War romantics, pre-millennial art murderers and wild-eyed aliens from Bromley. The stage show has drawn acclaim from critics and audiences alike, with several London runs and a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as numerous touring dates. David Bowie himself has described a recording of the show as a "real ear-opener"!

Darkness and Disgrace is one of the most intriguing and stimulating examinations / reappraisals of any artist, recasting Bowie's work in a contemporary English Chanson milieu. It's also terrific fun, and marks an intriguing comparative study when put alongside Bowie's current return to the music mainstream. The album also features two guest backing vocals from the show's director, Barb Jungr, herself a critically acclaimed singer and interpreter of chanson and musical cabaret material.

"A must-have for Bowie fans -- and diverting for non-devotees too" - Record Collector

But back in the 1970s we were both Bowie fans, and David's work has left its traces and signposts: theatre, storytelling, science fiction, music hall, mod, Jacques Brel, soul and R&B, the importance of the well-turned lyric, the extraordinary pianism of Garson... Years later, it only took a chance remark from Des that he'd once thought of doing a show entirely of Bowie songs and the current project assembled itself almost before our eyes with the utmost sense of logic.

Barb Jungr, a close friend and colleague, offered to direct the show, which evolved into Darkness and Disgrace. On stage, it's a music theatre piece in which Bowie songs in stripped-down arrangements are interspersed with spoken texts, quotes from interviews and dramatised excerpts from other works linked to the songwriter's career, such as Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.

The show began life at the Rosemary Branch Theatre, London N1 in April 2000 and has since been through several incarnations, including a run at the Edinburgh Fringe. If nothing else, it would be excellent proof of the old adage that a good song needs only a voice and piano or guitar to be effective, but it also seems to have struck a chord both with devoted Bowiephiles seeing something new in well-loved work, and people who were put off by aspects of Bowie's image without recognising what a great songwriter he was, and is, beneath the Aladdin Sane flashes and the Kirlian haloes.

For us, of course, it was partly that image that attracted us to Bowie's work back in our teenage years. We're both from families of immigrants and asylum seekers, and grew up with a sense of never quite belonging, being misfits and outsiders, a sense compounded by the fact that both of us were also clever, bookish, solitary, sensitive boys with no aptitude for sports whatsoever. Not surprising that we found Bowie's concerns with alienation, the trademark "man-from-Mars schtick", so appealing.

Then there was the sexual ambiguity, such a major factor in Bowie's early 70s persona, and of obvious appeal to a gay man who seems straight (Des), and to a straight man who is often mistaken for gay (Russell).

There was his sense of theatre: the bewildering parade of masks, guises and personae, the ease with which he slipped from one to the next, and the glee with which he courted controversy.

And then, of course, there was the work itself. We'd both been captivated by the sheer quality of the writing, the lyrical intelligence, the unashamed literary sensibility and resistance to accusations of pretentiousness, and a breadth of reference unprecedented in the world of the three-minute pop song. And the musical bravery: the compulsive innovation, the lack of complacency, his refusal to revisit old ground.

With this in mind, we couldn't have been more chuffed and slightly overwhelmed when David Bowie himself commented, after hearing a tape of the show: "To hear these songs in such a personalised context is a real ear-opener. I listened as though someone else had written them." As songwriters ourselves, we also recognise the slightly spooky way that a good song seems to take on a life of its own, independent of the person who spawned it. We hope you will also find something fresh and unexpected in our versions that reveals new layers in these unique and masterful songs.

Russell Churney and Des de Moor, London, August 2003

Barb Jungr's website
www.barbjungr.co.uk
David Bowie official site
www.davidbowie.com
Lyrics to David Bowie songs online at www.teenagewildlife.com
Search for David Bowie recordings on Amazon.