AS Jonny Greenwood has admitted, musicians schooled in rock engage with world music at their peril. Yet the man whose uncommon musicality has periodically elevated Radiohead from bog-standard to tilting at greatness is not your average rocker, his bent for adventure having led to collaborations with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki and scoring such films as There Will Be Blood.
Here his questing continues, this time via a foray into the world of qawwali – Sufi devotional music – in new compositions by the Israeli musician Shye Ben Tzur and accompanied by an ensemble of Indian musicians.
It’s no great surprise that the resulting two-CD set is a ragged, riotous wonder in which the key elements of dholak (hand drum), brass, strings (sarangi, kamaicha) and voices soar and sink like the bubbles in a broiling gumbo. Among the panoply of pleasures there is immeasurable beauty (the elongated, keening intro of Hu), a diversion into the avant-garde undergrowth (the near nine-minute Kalandar) and several arresting choral pieces, notably the mantric Eloah and the joyous techno minimalism of Roked.
Mercifully free of so much as a hint of rock tropes, Junun is a revelation which will revive even the most jaded palate.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here