The Langley Schools Music Project

Innocence & Despair
Live album by The Langley Schools Music Project
Released	rereleased in 2001
Recorded	1976-77
Venue	School gymnasium in Langley, British Columbia
Genre	Outsider music
Length	1:03:47
Label	Bar/None Records Manimal Vinyl (2016 re-issue)

The Langley Schools Music Project is a collection of recordings of children's choruses singing pop hits by the likes of the Beach Boys, Paul McCartney, and David Bowie. Originally recorded in 1976–77, they were found and rereleased only 25 years later (in 2001) and became a cult hit and a successful example of outsider music.

The project was undertaken in 1976–77 by Canadian music teacher Hans Fenger with students from four different elementary schools of the Langley School District in British Columbia. Recordings were made in a school gym in Langley, in Metro Vancouver. Two LPs were released, 1976's Lochiel, Glenwood, and South Carvolth Schools and 1977's Hans Fenger/Wix-Brown Elementary School.

Fenger later said:

The recordings were little known until Brian Linds, a Victoria record collector, found the first record in a thrift store in 2000. He sent it to Irwin Chusid, a proponent of outsider music. After ten labels had rejected them, Bar/None Records released Innocence & Despair, a single-CD compilation of the two LPs.

Innocence & Despair quickly created an international buzz, making many end-of-the-year best album lists in 2001.

Fred Schneider called the project "a haunting, evocative wall-of-sound experience that is affecting in an incredibly visceral way".Neil Gaiman commented, "I wish every school taught music like this. I wish every piece of music recorded in a school gymnasium were this haunting... and then I suspect that, if I listened to them right, maybe they would be."

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