English

Sunshine Cleaners Contact: thebigchief37@gmail.com

NEW ALBUM: SEVEN ACTS OF MERCY Europe: €14.50 (postage included)

NEW ALBUM

Songs about common people who accomplish remarkable things in unusual circumstances: Etty Hillesum, Blaze Foley, Charlotte Salomon, Greta Thunberg, Witold Pilecki and others.

Will Kaufman:


This is a great collection of new songs by my good friend in the Netherlands, Sjef Hermans, performed by Sjef, Jacqueline Heijmans, and Geert de Heer. These are songs to help us get through the tough times - "songs about common people who accomplish remarkable things in unusual circumstances" (which is an understatement when it comes to the likes of Charlotte Salomon, Greta Thunberg, and Blind Willie Johnson, among the others honored in these songs).



Silent Voices – Songs Inspired By Bonhoeffer’s Prison Poems

An album by the Dutch trio Sunshine Cleaners

They closed his church

They banned his books

They separated him from the ones he loved

They locked him up

They sentenced him to death

But they could not break his will

His last words on April 9, 1945

Were: ‘This is the end, for me the beginning of life’


Almost 75 years ago, in the face of the horrors of the Nazi regime, the spirit of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

burned its brightest. Before he was executed by the Nazi’s for conspiring to assassinate Adolf Hitler,

this beloved pastor, theologian, writer, and voice of Christian conscience wrote ten poems.

These powerful writings inspired the Dutch trio Sunshine Cleaners to write ten songs.

They recorded them on their album ‘Silent Voices’.

Sunshine Cleaners are:

Jacqueline Heijmans - lead vocals

Sjef Hermans - guitar, banjo & vocals

Geert de Heer - mandolin, guitar & dobro

Album 10€ (postage not included)

A VERY SPECIAL VIDEOCAST OF SCHENCK TALKS BONHOEFFER

THAT BRINGS THE POETRY OF BONHOEFFER THROUGH SONG

From Rev. Rob Schenck

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a lover of music. In fact, in his early years, most thought – including Dietrich – that he would go on to be a professional pianist. Many family pictures show Bonhoeffer seated at the piano with friends and family joyfully surrounding him in song.

It is indeed a poetic honor to Bonhoeffer that someone – in this case a trio – would put his most beautiful poems and writings into song. And I, for one, am immensely glad that they did. The group, The Sunshine Cleaners, hail from the Netherlands and are comprised of Sjef Hermans, Jacqueline Heijmans, and Geert de Heer.

I recently talked with these talented band members by video link about their special album, Silent Voices: Songs Inspired by Bonhoeffer’s Prison Poems. I INVITE YOU TO WATCH THIS SPECIAL VIDEOCAST OF SCHENCK TALKS BONHOEFFER FEATURING THE SUNSHINE CLEANERS! You will not only hear about their inspiration for this unique album, but you will get the privilege of watching them perform one of their songs from the album! I’m sure you will find this trio, and their special music, as inspiring as I did. WATCH HERE!

Silent Voices: Songs Inspired by Bonhoeffer’s Prison Poems takes the listener back into time in a prison in Nazi Germany where Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote some of his greatest work that would end up inspiring generations around the world. This 11-track album will take you to another dimension and inspire you to live out your faith in bold new ways.

For more information on the album or to order email pjhermans@zeelandnet.nl or thebigchief37@gmail.com


Music Review Dietrich Bonhoeffer Legacy

Silent Voices by Sunshine Cleaners

The album titled Silent Voices by the group, Sunshine Cleaners, constitutes ten songs inspired by Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Prison Poems. The group is comprised of Sjef Hermans, Jacqueline Heijmans and Geert de Heer, three Dutch musicians who have taken elements of Bonhoeffer’s poetry and put them to musical scores. The result is an appropriately simple yet alluring means of eliciting the spirit of Bonhoeffer’s reflections, many of them concerning death, eternal life and personal legacy, in a unique and highly creative way. The melodies and vocals fit well the sentiments of his prison theology as Bonhoeffer scholars have come to understand them. Amidst the many innovative ways in which Bonhoeffer inspires imaginative thought and creative practice, this album is worthy of a place. It represents a contribution in its own way to the legacy to which this journal is dedicated.

Terence Lovat

The University of Newcastle, Australia