The Gnu is the inspiration behind much of the musical output of Berj Topalian. Whilst he spends much of his time inhabiting the plains of Africa south of the Sahara, he is also to be found producing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs from his shed in the open woodland floodplains of Bristol. He communicates primarily through the medium of dance, but is keen to be reunited with his friends and acquaintances who have shared in the making or enjoyment of his music. He may occasionally respond to queries from the contact link on the menu of this website or address them via his FAQs, but would encourage you to share your thoughts with the communion of saints below.
Comments on this page are moderated so may not appear straight away, and your email address will not be made public.
Huge CONGRATULATIONS Berj and all GNU today celebrating 40 years since birth with OoN recording. Happy memories of sharing Gnu’s early embryonic years (76-79) as some of the genres and genius were coming together (eg. Adrian Snell). I feel a GNUfest coming on…
Hi whoever remembers me (and sometimes Jemma, my daughter,) enjoyed singing Psalm 146 again tonight chez moi. Xx
@ St Michael’s, Stoke Gifford now
Whilst thinking what music to play this Sunday at ‘cafe church’ for the theme ‘ I am the true vine’..I was led back to memories from CCC between 1981-1987. So delighted to have found the GNU’s rendition of this wonderful passage from John 15! Thank you !
Hello Joanna. I would like to say that it’s amazingly curious how songs travel! But I have to confess that I was at UBS (Pune) and also in Bangalore in 1998/1999 for a month doing some Old Testament teaching and also running music workshops and spouting about Music in Worship. My aim in the workshops was to get folks writing in styles that were rooted in their own ethnic backgrounds. I eschewed the notion of West is Best, i.e. churches in India importing the latest stuff from Britain or the United States. Instead I insisted that the Gospel expresses itself in a unique way in each different culture. If I am the guilty party for your husband’s infection then I failed abysmally. If his singing of this little ditty is becoming a chronic condition, please let me know. I can recommend some herbal tablets that are perfectly harmless that just might deprogramme him.
Please bear in mind that, if you use this song in public, the words of the 2 verses are by someone else – I cannot trace who – and may be in copyright. The music and the words of the chorus are mine and you can use them freely as long as you acknowledge they are the work of a law abiding Gnu. Bear in mind, You can sing the chorus anywhere, anytime, and hum the verse and think the words. Then you’ll certainly will be the right side of the Law. Don’t forget to wear a mask of performing in public.
Hello – stumbled across your site while searching for the Nicodemus song. It’s one of the songs my husband sings around the house and I had never come across it before. He learnt it as a child in Pune, India in the mid 90’s. Any idea who might have brought your songs over to India at that time, most likely with a connection to UBS seminary? Just curious and thought you might be too!
Great to see and hear – a wonderful collection – more please!
Our homegroup was studying Psalm 130 this evening and I kept on humming the GNU version in my head. After a light spot of Googling I found this site. So happy that you’ve put the music here! Thank you for so much of God’s word lodged in my brain more than 30 years on.
I have been enjoying singing along to worship, particularly today Psalm 146, Worship The Lord during presently a tough time.
Lots of love, Nicola Moore.
Hope to reply to some of your comments soon, as previously intended.
Hi,
Lovely to hear some of the music and I’ll be back to check out more! Rachel Grant told me about it. So funny seeing Berj’s Gnu stuff and his comments, also to see other comments of people I knew in the choir. Intend to come back and reply to them. What a lovely idea sharing all these lovely music memories, and a beautifully done website!
Lovely to see Susie’s face too.
Lots of love, Nicola Moore
Hi, Lovely to hear some of the music and I’ll be back to check out more! Rachel Grant told me about it. So funny seeing Berj’s Gnu stuff and his comments, also to see other comments of people I knew in the choir. Intend to come back and reply to them. What a lovely idea sharing all these lovely music memories, and a beautifully done website!
Lovely to see Susie’s face too.
Lots of love, Nicola Moore
Thank you SO much Jonny (I saw Berj this very morning, who told me about this site) for digitising all this lot and putting it up on the web – it was a very special golden era for all this music, and I still have the published musc books and maybe cassette tapes
Oh wow, how amazing is this to both see the photos and the names and to listen again. Being at Christ Church (and a silent partner in some of the recordings) was such a special time of love, friendship and, as others have said, weirdness (which remains in me to this day, it has to be said). I often think back to that time and the people I knew them.
Your impact is such that (as now a Reader and married to a Rev) I sometimes choose hymns for services and I think of ones that would be brilliant but can’t find them in any of the hymn books – and that’s because they came from a time and place that was so special.
Hi Richard, Pam Finnigan here, wonderful to see you all again after so many years.
Congratulations my little cousin. I am very proud of you. Looking forward to the enjoyment of your music. I don’t think Gnu has aged! May he live forever! Thank you for this website and all the years of hard work and the pleasure you have given to many over the years.
Thanks so much for this great website and the wonderful memories it brings back. I’ve been dying to check out the website ever since I heard about it a few months ago, but my internet access in the Democratic Rebublic of Congo was not up to it. Now back in the UK I can indulge myself in the memories,
Dear Doctor Francesca, I am very glad you are back in the UK! I hope you will adjust to life back here after working for many years in the wonderful country of the DR of Congo. I, myself, have had a lovely life thinking I was working in the UK; but I get confused because an increasing number of people tell me I’m on another planet.
Yes, do indulge in memories, but if they run dry, let me know. I have a whole list of things you might like to try to indulge in. The Medieval Church was really into indulgences, but I am told they were not the sort that I am thinking about….. though I am led to understand that I might need some of their sort of indulgences after pursuing some of my indulgences. Confused ? Look up “Indulgences” in Mr. Waki Pedia. He will explain everything. He is very very clever. He can even explain the Bible. Lots of love from Old Gnu.
Thank you so much for this wonderful truly amazing website that has simply blessed my socks off🌞🌝!! It has been really wonderful to listen to this fantastic music and worship and to be able to use it in my times of personal praise etc. I feel very privileged to have been at Christchurch when we had such an amazing and talented team of musicians leading the worship. THANK YOU all so much
To Kate:
Enjoyed your last comment about trying to sing the chants!
Nicola Moore
To Louise:
Hi, it’s Nicola. Thankyou for befriending me – and my daughter Jemma when she was in the choir as a child. I particularly enjoyed reading your comments.
Lots of love
Nicola Moore
Excellent – I will tell him to be patient! There is nothing to forgive – he didn’t run away!
Thankyou so much for doing this – so many happy memories and what a great training – musical, spiritual etc. Request from Justin for “When in time of great trouble I cried to the Lord, in His mercy He heard my prayer” – the story of how you all played it just as I arrived for our wedding has been told many many times!
Hello Mary. “When in time of great trouble”(Psalm 30) will appear in due course on GNU 010. We hope to put all the albums on roughly in chronological order. GNU 005 is due out at Pentecost I think. So it may take some time. I hope that’s OK with Justin. His patience will be rewarded. In addition, there are surprising things that will hopefully reach your ears before the end of this present age. For the things that have laid hidden in darkness and incomplete for many years will come to fruition in the fullness of time and be made manifest. I am sorry about playing Psalm 30 as you arrived at your wedding. How did it happen?! The sins of the past are many. The remembrance of them is grievous unto me.
What a joy this music brings. So many wonderful memories of fun and worship. Thank you. Can’t wait to hear the psalms again. I still hear your music as I read them.
Salutations Elaine, most honoured and faithful trumpeter of Berj’s Blast Band for many a year! I seem to remember that the last mighty blast we had was at a diocesan service in Bristol Cathedral. That one was really the Mother of All Blasts. It is still ringing in my ears, just as the vibrations of the Big Bang can apparently still be heard or felt throughout Space (or so the theory goes). I got my first set of hearing aids shortly after that. The very thought of some of those searing descents and fanfares makes my horns vibrate with excitement. Shall we ever hear the like again ? ! ……. anyway, we hope to reproduce some from disintegrating old cassettes from time to time.
Yes, us too like so many others, a big and special part of our lives with so many happy memories. An enormous privilege for us to have been involved in the wonderful music, to meet so many lovely people and to have been blessed by knowing Berj and Susie (even if they are a bit weird!!)
It was a time of deep learning and enrichment for me also, on many, many fronts. This was the spin off of living and working in a very welcoming, broad based, affirming, inclusive and glorious technicolor community. The staff team at any one time was made up of utterly different characters, with different perspectives and opinions. Alas I was the only normal one. We had a leader who had the wisdom and spiritual security to surround himself with such, because he believed that strength was found in diversity; and that it was an important check on finding the right way ahead. Life and work always presented a challenge, with no room for complacency. But who are these two you mention by name? You must introduce them to me because I like weird people.
I grant you, the staff were a weird mix of people; but pray tell me, what makes you think that you were the only one who was normal?
I would have thought it was obvious – I was the only one with horns. A consultant psychiatrist friend took a particular interest in me for over 40 years. Alas I miss him very much. I also have a friend who is an internationally recognised author and expert on different models of counselling. We have lots of nice chats together.
Also…how wonderful to see all these names together in one place again! I remember everyone, even if you don’t remember me! I feel so privileged to have been a part of all of this.
I still have all the cassettes. When I play them, I can still sing the tenor parts – and the dubious descants!
The Christchurch choir was one of the high points of my time in Bristol.
I remember laying down recorder tracks late one Friday night for a Christmas album – those were the days. Another memory involves Berj trying to get me to learn the cornemuse (a dismal failure) although whether for a recording or just for fun I now can’t remember.
The psalm settings in particular have remained with me, and I can’t hear certain texts without Berj’s music playing in my head. (This can be awkward when I’m supposed to be singing them to traditional Anglican chants…)
Enjoyed your last comment about trying to sing the chants!
Nicola Moore
Hello to you all. This is Brilliant, thankyou. Those were such special times at ChristChurch Clifton. I didn’t know how lucky and blessed we were at the time, I reflect back often and now I have the music to listen to again . Some of the tracks hold such special memories. As Leonard says – a grand re-union and concert would be great – actually it would be a fabulous thing. Fun times! Thankyou again.
Thanks so much for these – brought back wonderful memories. We were only saying the other day,”What happened to all those psalms Berj was putting to music?” Lovely to see and hear our friends too!
I remember singing and playing this stuff like it was yesterday. Amazing!
What joy to come across this wonderful site! It brings back such happy memories of that whole wonderful season at CCC. Living in Linden Gate as we did, above the Maestro for several years, were fun-filled, precious times. As for the music, it does transport us back to Clifton but also up to the gates of Glory! And so good to have those special photos (which you promised never to publish!).
We await the grand re-union and live concert in aid of decrepit musicians and clergy!
Leonard and Alison Browne
Yes! A reunion! It would be wonderful to sing these songs again…
Thanks so much. So many happy memories here. Stewart and I send our love x
Thank you Berj for this wonderful treasure trove of musical gems. I have spent the weekend immersed in your compositions and it’s been an emotional journey going through the years of musical memory. I especially loved ‘Name of all Majesty’ from bonus tracks which took me back to the 6.30 service in what I consider the best years at CCC when the music would transport me to heavenly realms. Berj’s music meant so much to me and my parents ( Alan and Norah Martin)- it entered my spiritual DNA. Mum and Dad would have loved GNUtube. I know they are e’een now running over the plains of glory singing lustily, with a heavenly hoofprint alongside.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Thank you so much for doing this, you may have no idea just how good this is for us.
Gill and Tony
Wonderful to see. What memories. How amazing. U all grew up too wonderful becoming Xx for
This is utterly wonderful! Thanks so much for putting this together. I should be writing a sermon and doing lots of admin today, so I’m very happy to have this to distract me!
Thanks Richard – [spoiler alert / plug] “For All He Gives Us” is coming before Easter and Psalms & Songs from CCC (GNU005) with your sublime version of “I am the True Vine” will follow soon after 🙂
This is amazing. I am so happy to see the Gnu again. I hope he still has his CND badge.