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''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 Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He is known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead, having produced all their studio albums since '' OK Computer'' (1997). ...
, 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 Mehrangarh Fort covers an area of 1,200 acres (486 hectares) in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The complex is located on a hilltop around 122 metres above the surrounding plain, and was constructed by Rajput ruler Rao Jodha, though most of the ex ...
in Rajasthan, India, and hired only local musicians. The Rajasthan Express incorporated musicians from
Qawwali Qawwali (Punjabi language, Punjabi: (Shahmukhi), (Gurmukhi); Urdu: (Nastaʿlīq, Nasta'liq); Hindi: क़व्वाली (Devanagari); Bengali language, Bengali: কাওয়ালি (Bengali alphabet, Bengali)) is a form of Sufi Isl ...
,
Muslim Roma Xoraxane Roma in Balkan Romani language, are non- Vlax Romani people, who adopted Sunni Islam of Hanafi madhab at the time of the Ottoman Empire. Some of them are Derviş of Sufism belief, and the biggest Tariqa of Jerrahi is located at the ...
and a brass section who had played in weddings and parades. Ben Tzur wrote the songs, with Greenwood contributing guitar, bass, keyboards,
ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...
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 Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with '' Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' (1997) and received ...
, 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 The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...
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 Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...
, India, and only use string instruments native to the region. Ben Tzur, Greenwood and Radiohead producer
Nigel Godrich Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He is known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead, having produced all their studio albums since '' OK Computer'' (1997). ...
set up a recording studio in
Mehrangarh Fort Mehrangarh Fort covers an area of 1,200 acres (486 hectares) in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The complex is located on a hilltop around 122 metres above the surrounding plain, and was constructed by Rajput ruler Rao Jodha, though most of the ex ...
in Rajasthan. They were joined by a group they named the Rajasthan Express, incorporating musicians from three musical traditions:
Qawwali Qawwali (Punjabi language, Punjabi: (Shahmukhi), (Gurmukhi); Urdu: (Nastaʿlīq, Nasta'liq); Hindi: क़व्वाली (Devanagari); Bengali language, Bengali: কাওয়ালি (Bengali alphabet, Bengali)) is a form of Sufi Isl ...
, Sufi musicians from Southeast Asia;
Muslim Roma Xoraxane Roma in Balkan Romani language, are non- Vlax Romani people, who adopted Sunni Islam of Hanafi madhab at the time of the Ottoman Empire. Some of them are Derviş of Sufism belief, and the biggest Tariqa of Jerrahi is located at the ...
; and a brass section who had played in weddings and parades. Ben Tzur wrote the songs, with Greenwood contributing guitar, bass, keyboards,
ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player ...
and programming. Greenwood produced the album and Godrich engineered. According to ''Pitchfork'''','' ''Junun'' incorporates "
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
-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 progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...
s, 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,
ndian Ndian is a department of Southwest Region in Cameroon. It is located in the humid tropical rainforest zone about southeast of Yaoundé, the capital. History Ndian division was formed in 1975 from parts of Kumba and Victoria divisions and is ...
music 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 Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
,
Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...
, and
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Some singers sang phonetically in languages they did not know. All the
reverb Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is abs ...
is natural and was recorded using a large space beneath the fort. The recording is the subject of a documentary, '' Junun'', by
Paul Thomas Anderson Paul Thomas Anderson (born June 26, 1970), also known by his initials PTA, is an American filmmaker. He made his feature-film debut with '' Hard Eight'' (1996). He found critical and commercial success with ''Boogie Nights'' (1997) and received ...
, released in October 2015. Greenwood had previously composed soundtracks for several Anderson films. The group supported Radiohead's 2018 '' Moon Shaped Pool'' tour, performing under the name Junun.


Critical reception

''Junun'' received generally positive reviews. At the review aggregation site
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, it has an average score of 79, based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album a 7.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus. ''Pitchfork'' wrote: "The ensemble's playing and en Tzur'scompositions make ''Junun'' an easy stretch—though, crucially, not a condescending one—for listeners otherwise unfamiliar with the great variety of methods often obscured by ' world music' market-speak." The '' Guardian'' wrote: "Greenwood contributes subtle embellishments – occasional electronic beats, as well as understated guitar and bass – rather than any scene-stealing showboating. Indeed, the real stars here are the Rajasthan Express's six-piece brass section."


Track listing

# "Junun" – 5:54 # "Roked" – 3:21 # "Hu" – 7:49 # "Chala Vahi Des" – 4:16 # "Kalandar" – 8:50 # "Eloah" – 3:55 # "Julus" – 3:44 # "Allah Elohim" – 4:21 # "Ahuvi" – 5:08 # "Azov" – 3:50 # "Junun Brass" – 3:29 # "There Are Birds in the Echo Chamber" – 0:32 # "Modeh" – 5:35


Personnel

* Shye Ben Tzur – vocal, guitar, flute * Jonny Greenwood – guitar, bass guitar, drum machine and computers, ondes martenot, keyboard * Aamir Bhiyani – lead trumpet * Hazmat – tuba * Ajaj Damami – trombone * Sabir Damami – tuba * Soheb Bhiyani – trumpet * Bhanwaru Khan – tuba * Zakir Ali Qawwal – Qawwali vocal, harmonium * Zaki Ali Qawwal – Qawwali vocal * Gufran Ali, Shazib Ali – Qawwali chorus * Ehtisham Khan Ajmer – Qawwali chorus, dholak * Chugge Khan – percussion (khartal, bhapang, manjeera) * Nihal Khan – dholak * Nathu Lal Solanki – nagara * Narsi Lal Solanki – nagara * Asin Khan – sarangi on "Hu", vocal on "Ahuvi" * Dara Khan – kamaicha on "Hu" and "Ahuvi" * Afshana Khan – vocal on "Chala Vahi Des" * Razia Sultan – vocal on "Chala Vahi Des," "Allah Elohim" *
Nigel Godrich Nigel Timothy Godrich (born 28 February 1971) is an English record producer, recording engineer and musician. He is known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead, having produced all their studio albums since '' OK Computer'' (1997). ...
– mixing and engineering


References

{{Authority control 2015 albums Jonny Greenwood albums Albums produced by Nigel Godrich Hindi-language albums Urdu-language albums Hebrew-language albums Albums recorded in India