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Penny Rimbaud – What Passing Bells

Hardback CD released 3rd November 2017.

Co-founder of ’70s/’80s anarchist punk band Crass, activist, poet, novelist and philosopher Penny Rimbaud faithfully recites a collection of Wilfred Owen’s war poetry (backed by jazz cellist Kate Shortt, and pianist, Liam Noble) in memory of the centenary of Owen’s death. The album, What Passing Bells, was released through One Little Indian Records on November 3rd 2017.

In presenting Owen’s poetry in a new way, Rimbaud seeks to introduce Owen’s deep sense of humanity to audiences who otherwise might never have heard of him. Penny said: “It is a daunting task, but one which I take on gladly. As Owen himself wrote, ‘the poetry is in the pity’; the most I can do is to attempt to honour that.” Rimbaud was introduced to the poetry of Wilfred Owen as a young chorister, through Benjamin Britten’s ‘War Requiem’. Immediately moved both by the music and the words, Rimbaud felt that it made sense of a world frozen in the deathly thrall of World War 1.

In Penny’s words: “More than anything else, it was the line ‘I am the enemy you killed, my friend’ that resonated deep within my young heart. Here was a battle-cry so far from the jingoistic claptrap to which I had hitherto been exposed; an affirmation of love, a call to active peace and, perhaps more crucially, a raison d’être for a stripling on a quest for meaning where before there had seemed to be none.

Fearing that the centenary of World War 1 might give rise to the kind of jingoism to which Rimbaud had been exposed as a child, and knowing that Owen’s work could dampen even the heartiest of nationalists, Rimbaud determined to perform Owen’s ‘War Poems’ as often as possible between 2014 to 2018. However, to do this he first had to compile the poems into a cohesive order – a job that Owen’s death on the front lines had prevented him from doing.

Having completed the compilation, Rimbaud then asked two major jazz musicians, cellist Kate Shortt and pianist Liam Noble, to join him on the project. Over the years Rimbaud has performed his own poetry extensively with both of them. The trio gave their first performance of What Passing Bells at the Vortex Jazz Club in North London in Spring 2014. The show was a huge success leading to further performances, each being radically different due to their improvisational approach. Now the trio have committed a unique performance to tape, in tribute of the centenary of Owen’s death.

“The belief that we can and, indeed, should love our enemy is never far from my thoughts and it has informed and guided me in my life as an artist and activist.” – Penny Rimbaud