While the world waits to see what Radiohead will do next (or even if they will do anything next), Jonny Greenwood has been keeping busy.
In between his soundtrack work and The Smile, he’s found time to record a belated follow-up to Junun, an album he released back in 2015 with the Israeli musician Shye Ben Tzur, who works primarily in the field of Sufi devotional music, Qawwali.
Junun was recorded in Jodhpur, India, with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, whilst for the new record Ranjha, Greenwood invited Tzur and his backing group the Ranjasthan Express over to UK, to his home studio in Oxfordshire.
Tzur’s story is an interesting one. An Israeli New Yorker, his life changed in the late 90s when he heard Qawwali for the first time. “The first time I heard Indian music,” he has admitted. “I didn’t speak Urdu at that point, so I couldn’t really understand the lyrics. But I felt it physically. It changed my life. It made me move to India and dedicate myself to it.”
Junun was critically acclaimed and seemed to avoid the pitfalls of such projects: that of becoming the dull n' worthy ‘cultural exchange’. It seemed to take Greenwood out of his comfort zone, though. Talking about his work with Tzur, he’s said: “I’m used to songs about alienation, songs which are about serious things, but not spiritual things. If an English band just sang religious or spiritually inspired songs and poetry, it would be very unusual.”
They hadn’t intended for a second album to take so long. Writing sessions were fitted in during downtime on Radiohead’s 2017/18 tour. Then COVID happened, and diaries began to get filled up again.
Talking about the new album, Greenwood has said: “With Shye’s songs, you feel dangerously like you can ruin them quite easily by imposing western chords on them, like you’re forcing a square into a circle. But at the same time, a lot of the songs just seem to come to life as soon as there was some of that… I’ve always wanted to turn this band into a funk group.”
“Music is just such a sweet shop,” he reflected. “There are so many styles and talents, and it’s hard to just stick to one thing, because people are having fun elsewhere – and it looks like fun. That’s certainly always been true with Shye and our collaborators from India.”
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