Junun (album)

''Junun'' is a 2015 album by the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, the English composer Jonny Greenwood and the Indian ensemble the Rajasthan Express. It was produced by Greenwood and engineered and mixed by Nigel Godrich, the longtime producer for Greenwood's band Radiohead.

Greenwood first performed with Ben Tzur and his band in 2014. For ''Junun'', they set up a recording studio in Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India, and hired only local musicians. The Rajasthan Express incorporated musicians from Qawwali, Muslim Roma and a brass section who had played in weddings and parades.

Ben Tzur wrote the songs, with Greenwood contributing guitar, bass, keyboards, ondes Martenot and programming. He wanted to use chords sparingly, and instead write using North Indian ragas. Greenwood and Godrich hoped to capture the "roughness" of music in India, rather than pursue the high fidelity of many world music recordings. The recording was the subject of a documentary by Paul Thomas Anderson, released in October 2015.

''Junun'' received generally positive reviews. The group supported Radiohead's 2018 '' Moon Shaped Pool'' tour, performing under the name Junun.

Background

Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, who had been living in India for over a decade, was contacted by the Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, who admired his music. In 2014, Greenwood performed with Ben Tzur and his band. Greenwood described Ben Tzur's music as "quite celebratory, more like gospel music than anything—except that it's all done to a backing of Indian harmoniums and percussion". He described his role as "supportive" rather than "soloistic".

Recording

Planning a recording project, Greenwood and Ben Tzur agreed on things they would not do; for example, Greenwood insisted they hire only musicians from Rajasthan, India, and only use string instruments native to the region. Ben Tzur, Greenwood and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich set up a recording studio in Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan. They were joined by a group they named the Rajasthan Express, incorporating musicians from three musical traditions: Qawwali, Sufi musicians from Southeast Asia; Muslim Roma; and a brass section who had played in weddings and parades. Ben Tzur wrote the songs, with Greenwood contributing guitar, bass, keyboards, ondes Martenot and programming. Greenwood produced the album and Godrich engineered.

According to ''Pitchfork'''','' ''Junun'' incorporates "Bollywood-style brass exuberance, the devotional Qawwali music of Sufi Islam, and bowed-string instruments associated with the Manganiar community". Whereas western music is based on harmonies and chord progressions, Greenwood wanted to use chords sparingly, and instead write using North Indian ragas. He said: "There's no major or minor in Indian music, which is very peculiar for someone who's used to playing with Radiohead and coming up with chord sequences ... As soon as you start imposing chords on this kind of music, you pin it down and force melodies onto it to have some sort of harmonic language that they don't really have, ndianmusic is more ambiguous than that." He likened the music to the work of James Brown, describing it as "ecstatic".

Greenwood and Godrich said they wanted to avoid the "obsession" with high fidelity in recording world music, and instead capture the "dirt" and "roughness" of music in India. Greenwood said: "When lots of westerners go to India they make music with lots of respect, but sometimes it feels a bit like there's ''too'' much respect. People can be too wary, too wary to make anything that captures the real roughness of some of this music, especially the way the brass bands play when they're following processions and weddings down backstreets and the like." To capture less polished recordings, the singers used handheld microphones. The lyrics are in Hebrew, Hindi, and Urdu

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