Identity
It's a long story. But to cut it short: Y. Bhekhirst is a middle-aged Latin American man who sings - in a lilting, accented voice - odd and strangely expressed songs, mostly about love, transportation, the seasons, and dancing, against a sparse musical background. As far as anyone has discovered, the entirety of his published musical recordings is a single and a cassette, both titled "Hot In The Airport", with ten songs in total, released in 1986 in New York on the label HDG Records.
History
While not quite as reclusive as Jandek once was, Y.'s methods are just as uncompromisingly DIY. Having self-published, and then re-published, his single and cassette, Y. apparently went around to various New York music stores, introduced himself as "Y. Bhekhirst", handed over the cassette, and then left.
Sometime in the 1990s, or maybe even earlier (it appears that the tape had a second pressing in 1994), the single fell into the hands of the presenters of the "Incorrect Music" show (on WFMU), and was played repeatedly and to some acclaim. In 1999, someone passed the cassette onto them, and songs from it were played on air frequently. The mystery of Y.'s identity, as well as the identities of his apparent collaborators - H. Diaz, Al Pol, and so on - were debated at length. No theory seemed to account for all the bizarre features of Y.'s recordings. The question of Y.'s ethnic identity also fascinated people: some suggestions, based mostly on his accent, were Belgian, Dutch, French, German, Indian, and Spanish.
In late 2003, however, blogger Phil took the very logical step of looking up Y.'s name in US copyright records. This seemed to reveal the following things:
Bhekhirst fans had not noticed this, but in August 2026 it was brought to my attention that Jose Hugo Diaz Guzman had died in New York on 23 May 2016. He is buried in the City Cemetery on Hart Island, where "unclaimed and unidentified New Yorkers" were buried in mass graves. Details of his burial plot are here. His name also appears in an announcement by the Peruvian government that assets unclaimed after 10 years would become property of the state.
Genealogical websites (to my knowledge) have only two entries for "Bhekhirst". A man named "Yrk Bhekhirst" (yes, "Yrk" is supposed to be the first name as far as I can tell) is reported (in public (phone, or could be voter) directories from 1991) to be contactable at PO Box 323, New Hyde Park. "Al Phool" shares the same PO Box. In 1992, "Hugo D. Bhekhirst" lived in 179th Place, Queens. It is claimed that Hugo D. Bhekhirst is also known as "Hugo D. Diaz". This person shares "Yrk"'s birthdate, 15 July 1946. As for PO Box 323, in 1992 that's attributed to "Hugo D. Guzman"!
Before this gets even more confusing, have a look at the relevant copyright records. You'll note that when Y. Bhekhirst is mentioned, he's supposedly a different person, born in 1952. But you'll also note that JHDG has written all of the songs (words and music) that Y. supposedly performs. It's probably safer to assume that Y. Bhekhirst is a fictional individual. (Further note: if you google for "Yrk Bhekhirst", you can find traces of some sort of data mine which suggested that the name was being used at a later date, and could be traced to Flushing. I can't comment any further on that!)
The post office box is a minor mystery in itself. If the relevant person lived in Jamaica, why would they get a post box in New Hyde Park? There are about five closer post offices. I haven't provided the actual address of the Bhekhirst house, first because it's a little hard to identify exactly which it is from the map, but more importantly to deter tourists. (I have no idea who lives there now.) But here's a general view of the relevant streetscape, from Google Street View.
That takes us to 1992, but (in November 2014) I received an email from a correspondent (known as "Fofo") who had traced JHDG, with a high level of certainty, to his current location. (We now know that JHDG was in New York in 2016, though.)
While it's not (yet) certain whether he was actually born there, JHDG had been living in Peru for around twenty years. For some time, he lived in San Luis, a borough of Lima. At the time he clearly travelled from place to place, as he was registered as a sailor in Panama and operated a business to import clothes from Peru.
All this information is available in public documents, particularly the Peruvian tax website, so I won't make the precise addresses available here, but I'm providing below a few pictures (from Google Street View) of the street where he lived and the house which Fofo believes belonged to JHDG. Note the political placard, the landscape artwork, and the rather strange message, which translated means "Room available for rent for a single person or a couple".
In 2014 I wrote to the Peruvian address and received no reply. Many other people tried similar approaches but had no contact with him. It seems from his burial on Hart Island that JHDG did not have any close relatives, at least in America. I'm not in America, but if anyone visits Hart Island, please email me with a photo.
Names
For starters, here is the list of the seventeen names used in the Y. Bhekhirst oeuvre (not counting the four names from the public directory):
Y. Bhekhirst Y. Bherhirst Pepe H. Diaz Jose Hugo Diaz Guzman J. Hugo Diaz Guzman Hugo Diazg Guzman Jose Hugo DiazzGuzman Hugo Diaz G. Hugo Diaz H. Diaz H. Diazg Al Pheol Al Pol Al Phool Al Phol Ah Pol Al Phooz
At least Jose Hugo Diaz Guzman is a reasonably normal Hispanic name, and Pepe is an everyday nickname. There are other people who have abbreviated "Diaz Guzman" to "Diazg" (although not many). "Bhekhirst" is rather stranger. No-one else seems to share the name, although it's a modification of "Beckhurst", "Beekhoorst", and other such English and Dutch names. As for "Al Pol" etc., your guess is as good as mine...
Finally, here's a fun piece of word salad from Phil:- Take YBHEKHIRST and divide into YBHE, KHIRST.
- Take YBHE and apply this simple cipher: take each letter and alternately
change it into the letter after or before it in the alphabet. You get ZAID ->
DIAZ backwards!
- That leaves KHIRST which can be anagrammed in various interesting and
possibly relevant ways: KHRIST, T. KRISH, etc.