Astonishing Aphex Twin Improv

David Paravicini is an English savant pianist, who's connection to and ability to play music is quite frankly astonishing. He was born prematurely at 25 weeks, and is blind with profound autism, and has a unique gift of perfect pitch, and the ability to play any piece of music after hearing it only once. In this video he hears the last 30 seconds of Aphex Twin's Avril 14th, and improvises beyond that segment... absolutely phenomenal. 

David's Ted Talk entitled: In the Key Of Genius is worth a watch:

In 2010, Derek was featured on Stan Lee's "Superhumans", whereupon tests verified his musical ability and confirmed his savantism. He began playing the piano at two, and subsequently attended the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London. He met a piano instructor, Adam Ockelford, on his first visit to the school; recognising his genius, Adam began to teach him. Derek gave his first concert in South London aged seven. Adam is a Professor of Music at the University of Roehampton, the Chair of Soundabout, a charity supporting music provision for young people and founder of the AMBER Trust, supporting visually impaired children in their pursuit of music.

"Born on a Blue Day" is a fantastic memoir by Daniel Tammet, another autistic savant who experienced synesthesia and sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures. He was born on a Wednesday which he visualises as Blue - he is able to memorise and recitedmore than 22,000 digits of pi and learnt conversational Icelandic in a week. It's a great read! 

See a playlsit of his videos here

More from Derek Paravicini

• Agnes Obel on New Album & Motherhood 21-Sep-26
• MTV Jungle & DnB Music Videos 18-Sep-26
• Bitwig's New Native Devices 17-Sep-26
• Reason Scream4 is Now Free! 17-Sep-26
• Broke Beats pt1 - A £37 Interface & Multi FX 16-Sep-26