Kate HeslopRadiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood has revealed he will be collaborating with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki with a new album release.
The two musicians first met at Wroclaw’s European Culture Congress in 2011 where they agreed to collaborate. The album was conducted by Marek Moś and Penderecki and recorded with the Polish Aukso Orchestra last year. It will consist of four pieces including Polymorphia and Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima which Penderecki wrote in the early ’60s, along with Greenwood’s composition 48 Responses to Polymorphia, inspired by Penderecki’s original work.
It will also contain unreleased composition Popcorn Superhet Receiver, a piece from 2005 that was later used in the soundtrack for There Will Be Blood. The score won Greenwood a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Composer by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Best Film Score award at the 2007 Evening Standard British Film Awards.
Krzysztof Penderecki has been considered one of Poland’s greatest composers, leading a movement of avant-garde classical music since the 1960′s and Jonny’s rock credentials bring a modern edge to a traditional classical field. Greenwood’s previous compositions have skipped from apocalyptic whines from string quartets to marching-inspired percussion.
His classical scores are a million miles from the piercing riffs and shredding guitars that were his claim to fame in Radiohead but be brings the same passion and skill to his classical pieces, moving so coherently from one genre to another.
The LP is due to be released on 13th March. In celebration of the LP’s release Penderecki and conductor Marek Moś will be appearing together at London’s Barbican on March 22nd, conducting the Aukso Chamber Orchestra.
