Various

LP version. Incredible music made by children in schools" says is it all really. Jonny Trunk has collected the best moments of that most niche of niche collectors' genres, the school album, spanning music by small primary school choirs singing folk songs to full-blown avant-garde experiments written and performed by children still at secondary or grammar school. As with practically all Trunk releases, it's a nostalgic gas for anyone over a certain age - we reckon anyone younger than 25 may be baffled and beguiled by these - but it should certainly strike a nerve with the vast majority of UK citizens schooled in the UK before the '90s when folk standards were largely rejected in favour of Take That and Oasis sing-a-longs (well, at my school anyway), and provide a valuable insight to anyone from beyond these shores. As Jonny points out, it's no Langley Schools Music Project, but there are some massive highlights, none less than Chelmsford County High School's haunting rendition of 'Portland Town', or 'Don't Drink And Drive' by Bradford's Hutton School Choir with the memorable line, "once you drank all your ale, you'll all have the bobby's on your tail", and especially the desolate bleakness of 'Musique Concrete' by Sounds Of Silence - an ensemble organised by John Paynter, who, along with Peter Aston conducted a handful of tracks here and wrote a number of books on the importance and impact of good musical education. So bravo Jonny Trunk, and well done to all the children, top marks all round!