How Artists With Disabilities Are Blazing New Musical Frontiers
By Jimmy Trash · Illustration by Amy Moss · May 29, 2026
“We call this ‘hurry up and wait.’ There is always a lot of waiting with us!” explains Michelle Hall, vocalist for the “weird-pop” group The Sisters of Invention. Hall is waiting to record her vocals in the studio at Tutti Arts, a multi-arts organization for disabled and neurodivergent artists in Brighton, South Australia. The band’s manager Bree Tranter is currently in the booth, conducting a lead vocal take with Aimee Crathern, while Annika Hooper, Hall, and Caroline Hardy work on some last-minute lyric adjustments in the adjacent room.
The Sisters are just one of a growing number of bands supported by inclusive, professional art and cultural productions including artists with and without disabilities. In addition to The Sisters, Tutti is also home to Quirkestra, an ambitious, experimental big band developed by Mat Morison of My Cherie and SlowMango. (Full disclosure: the author of this piece was also a member of this band). The Quirkestra is made up of 13 musicians representing a broad spectrum of learning and physical disabilities who meet once a week for writing, recording, and rehearsing with a dedicated staff of musician-careworkers. Along with developing a band structure where everyone’s abilities are utilized, Morrison also co-creates accessible instruments alongside the artists.
“I’ll always start with a strength or an interest of the person that I’m making the instrument for,” Morrison says. “If the artist is really good at dancing and moving their feet, the accessible instrument might take the form of a platform where their foot movements create musical sounds. Or if they’re into magic, their accessible instrument might take the form of a wand.” Wielding that wand is musician and artist Grace Lam. “It allowed me to grow in confidence by being free to experiment, and write my life stories into songs,” she says. “Learning to vocalize lyrics helped me to not be harsh on [my singing voice].”
Hamburg act Station 17 are arguably one of the earliest—and most prolific—examples of bands like The Sisters and The Quirkestra. Station 17 works inside Hamburg’s Barner 16 network, a collective of bands of a similar makeup. Station 17 has been releasing albums since 1989, collaborating with icons like Michael Rother, Holger Czukay, and FM Einheit, as well as other notable members of the German wave and experimental scenes. Nils Kempen, who has been the group’s guitar player since 2014, describes a similar process at Barner16 to the work being done at Tutti Arts. “On our rehearsal days, we write songs or prepare for concerts,” he says. “Anyone can contribute ideas for new songs. We try to consider all ideas, but they have to be compelling enough to generate a collective interest in pursuing them further. In this way, a song can gradually emerge from a melody, phrase, or rhythm. We try to avoid situations that seem like coaching or teaching.”
“We want to utilize the talents that each band member brings,” he continues. “We don’t want to compensate for perceived ‘weaknesses’ or ‘flaws’ of individual musicians. Rather, we try to incorporate them if they align with our shared artistic intention.” For Kempen, the song “20,000 Miles Under the Moon” is the perfect reflection of Station 17’s method of working. “We improvised a lot,” he says. “The structure presented itself beautifully—almost by itself.”
The Semi-Modulars are an analog synthesizer band operating inside the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Their records exude excitement, sinewave explorations interlaced with video-game bangers, making for an ecstatic combination. After an introduction to the basics of synthesizers and sound design, students begin a year-long course, choosing their synth and eventually recording and performing.
“Each student is assigned a synthesizer based on their musical strengths,” says instructor Dan Butler. “For example, the more musically advanced students will play a polyphonic synth. Students with a strong sense of rhythm might play a monophonic bass synth. Students that aren’t as adept at playing parts on a keyboard will work with semi-modular synths and effects to create sounds and textures in real time over the rest of the band. We arrange and rehearse as many songs as we can in the time allotted.”
“I was dreaming when I was small about being in a band and I finally got to have the experience,” Says current Texas student Alex Maradiaga. “I like that people enjoy our music and they have fun at the concerts.” He’s especially fond of the songs “After You Leave” and “Texas Misses You.” “Both are beautiful songs and are very sentimental to me. When I feel sad, I like emotional songs. I wrote both of those songs when I was feeling sad, and it made me feel a little bit better”.
Stefan Neville began making music as a teenager in Hamilton/Kirikiriroa, New Zealand in the early 1990s. Throughout the ‘00s, his band Pumice (with Jon Arcus) toured the world, playing with the crème de la crème of noisy art brut subculture before starting to work in the disability support sector in 2010. Inspired by his appreciation for legendary Argentinian band Reynols (“transcendental imagination and magic is in everything they do”), Neville began to hold free music-making sessions, which evolved into recordings and live gigs at festivals and local events. This work produced bands like the haunting The Talent and Michael & Daniel as well as session recordings available on his own label.
“My background in music is all self-taught and DIY,” Neville says. “I wanted to model that for people and show that anyone can make music. And it’s not just in a therapeutic model, where [the music-making is] in the moment. We can record it, share it with friends, we can release it, we can do a concert. It’s not just making music, but amplifying the parts that can be social opportunities—meeting people because they liked your concert. The rich life I’ve had because I made music, I thought, ‘I can help people have the same opportunities.’”
Neville moved his work to the art-therapy workshops of Māpura Studios in Tamaki Makaurau (Auckland) where he amassed 12 years worth of recordings, essentially creating a giant database of imaginary worlds, soundscapes, and alternative song structures. Among them: The epileptic-ethno-poetic project Artilepsy and PomPom, who were featured in the book Perfect Sound Forever by the English comedian James Acaster. (He posited that 2017 was the best year for music, and that PomPom’s album was evidence of this.)
The Māpura Music group is featured on the double-LP compilation We Are the World, which consists of international artists and was released by the French label Sonic Protest, and Neville recently released Rescued Speech Songs, working with autistic storyteller Indika Gamage-Mendis who had been participating in the Māpura Music Project.
As Station 17’s Kempen puts it, performing with the band helped him understand “the benefits of consuming art when one manages to break free from learned and common conventions and gain access to other perspectives—not just mainstream art, but also, aesthetic, highly ‘regulated’ art within subcultural contexts.” In other words, both sides of the equation help one another creatively and socially, resulting in music that is thrilling to listen to. This article just scratches the surface, here are more artists doing incredible stuff worth checking out:
Two other members of the Barner 16 project, both the amazing Slowi Chrizz—who have created a particularly dope film clip—and kUNDEkÖNIG both indulge in the trashy flavor of punk that is characteristic of the Hamburg scene.
Heart ‘n Soul in London produces and promotes artists like the delightful dub electro singer D.M.S., as well as the late Lizzie Emeh, a soul legend and a genuine inspiration to many artists around the world.
Dean Rodney Jr is a surreal, dancefloor-filler electroboogie artist whose humor and intensity are unmatched, and The Gate releases dubby tapes packed with incredible, Bill Laswell-esque explorations.
Hardcore French rappers Choolers Division, with their live band and aggressive delivery, are infectious and fresh as hell. Bands like rowdy punks Wild Classical Music Ensemble can be found on the Sonic Protest compilations, while the more proggy and hypnotic DNA? AND? are only a slice of the good stuff on Norwegian label Sanntids Musikk.
