Nonesuch Records releases Junun – an album from composer/musician Shye Ben Tzur, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and The Rajasthan Express, a group of Indian musicians – on November 20.  Recorded earlier this year in a makeshift studio inside the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, India, the album was made with Radiohead’s producer Nigel Godrich, who worked with the ensemble to create this two LP/CD album.  The album comprises Ben Tzur’s compositions, which feature devotional Sufi qawwal musicians who sing in Urdu as well as in his native Hebrew.

The filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, a friend and frequent collaborator of Greenwood, came along to document the recording sessions as well as daily life and the close camaraderie of artistic collaboration.  Anderson’s resulting impressionistic film, also entitled Junun, debuted at the New York Film Festival  on October 8 and began streaming exclusively on MUBI from October 9, where it will stream for 30 days.  Junun also will be shown at the Rome Film Festival in mid-October.

Greenwood made a guest appearance last year during Ben Tzur’s London concert, where they previewed some of the music of Junun, and this summer, the two were joined by the qawwali party for two performances at the Jerusalem Sacred Music Festival.  Further concerts are being planned for the future, as are additional screenings of Anderson’s film. 

Shye Ben Tzur is an Israeli composer/producer/poet and performer who lives in India and Israel, who composes qawwalis, instrumental and devotional music, in Hebrew, Urdu, and Hindi.

Widely known as the guitarist from Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood also is a highly respected composer. In addition to his soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, There Will Be Blood, and The Master, Nonesuch also released his score for Norwegian Wood and his collaboration with Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki.

Presented with Sage Gateshead.

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