Last year Jonny Greenwood gave an astounding fusion performance with Shye Ben Tzur and a collective of Indian musicians called The Rajasthan Express. This year, the entire troop is all set to a release a collaborative album, with an accompanying documentary directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Last year, the festival of folk spirit and global music, World Sufi Spirit Festival held annually in Rajasthan, India was treated to the presence of Radiohead’s lead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood. Before India could collectively fawn over the band member’s presence, fervently hoping for the rest of Radiohead, Jonny delivered a folk-dominating performance by collaborating with Shye Ben Tzur, acclaimed Israeli guitarist and a bunch of Rajasthani folk musicians from India.
(Source: World Sufi Spirit Festival Facebook)
(Source: Jonny Greenwood Facebook)
But the acclaimed English composer did not just leave it at that. He went on to quietly work on a collaborative music venture with the musicians, titled, ‘Junun’, which saw the presence of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich too. This collaboration was documented most secretively by master of coolth, Paul Thomas Anderson, and has been put together as a culturally profound documentary, that is up for exclusive streaming on Mubi.
Here’s the trailer of what promises to be an incredible documentation –
Shye Ben Tzur is an Israeli composer and musician, who has had a long standing association in India, having collaborated with several homegrown artists over the last many years. And Jonny Greenwood has never attempted to hide his admiration for Tzur. Together with The Rajasthan Express, their stellar performance and subsequent collaboration forms the genesis of Paul Thomas Anderson’s documentary on the subject, titled ‘Junun’, which premiered at the New York Film Festival on October 8. With PTA, as Anderson is fondly called, being reputed with using music in his directorial ventures most cinematically, the documentary would be right up his alley.
Junun, the album, is all set for release next month. And we for one, cannot wait for this artistic fusion!
(Credit: Shin Katan)