Jonny Greenwood - Smear

London Sinfonietta
Martyn Brabbins conductor
Valerie Harmann-Claverie ondes martenot
Bruno Perrault ondes martenot

Jonny Greenwood is best known as the lead guitarist of the band Radiohead whom he joined while still at school. He started to study psychology and music at Oxford Brookes University, but only finished his first term before leaving to sign a six-album deal with EMI, and start his recording career with Radiohead. Radiohead have realised phenomenal success over the past decade, with multi-platinum album sales and an ever growing worldwide following.
Greenwood is no stranger to classical music. Indeed, his early musical interests included Messiaen and Ligeti and he started out as a viola player. He plays several other instruments too, including piano, organ, banjo, glockenspiel and harmonica, and he has a particular love for the ondes Martenot. To date Greenwood has penned three "classical" works. Two of these compositions have been licensed to Faber Music: Smear (two ondes Martenots and ensemble) and Popcorn Superhet Receiver (string orchestra). The third, Piano for Children is currently under revision.

Smear, commissioned by the FuseLeeds festival, was premiered there in March 2004 by the London Sinfonietta. In March 2005 Greenwood was Featured Composer at the South Bank Centre's cutting-edge Ether Festival, where the revised version of Smear was performed by the London Sinfonietta in the Royal Festival Hall, one of its' two sell-out concerts there. Piano for Children, a new commission for John Constable and the London Sinfonietta, was in the concert programme, which also included music by Dutilleux, Penderecki, Ligeti, Messiaen and Mohammed Abdel Wahab. Smear was later released on CD on the London Sinfonietta Label as part of their Jerwood Series.

In 2004, Greenwood was made Composer in Residence with the BBC Concert Orchestra. The first fruit of this association was Popcorn Superhet Receiver, a BBC commission, premiered by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Robert Ziegler in April 2005. The piece was inspired by radio static and the extended, dissonant chords of Polish composer Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Jonny
• Greenwood
• Smear
• London
• Sinfonietta
• ondes
• martenot
• Radiohead
• Thom
• Yorke
• There
• Will
• Be
• Blood
• soundtrack
• live
• classical
• ensemble
• string
• orchestra
• composer
• dissonant
• avant
• garde

[marginallymental]

Nothing he writes is ever dull, but I've found some of his work with the ondes Martenot to be truly frightening. The distortion--on an already distorting instrument---in RH's "Amazing Sounds of Orgy", for instance, absolutely raised the hackles on the back of my neck. I've never had such a visceral reaction to an instrument in my life. Great song. TERRIFYING noise. It's like the memory of a satanic rape. Or being whipped by ghosts. Even remembering it chills. I think I'll go vomit now....

[spiritooalized]

Threnody for the victims of Radiohead!

[davidtheguitarman]

2001 a space odissey....

[Gossipnastar]

reminds me of portal 2...

[auleu]

what's that instrument at 4:16?

[Alkali64]

Ugh man... I have the scariest images in my head while listening to music like this. What the hell is that girl doing on the couch????

[vandoren59]

Jonny Greenwood IS a genius!

[Thatswhopunk]

My ears are officially a victim of rape.

[canteluna]

you can really hear his love for messiaen and penderecki in this piece. his soundtrack for the film norwegian wood is sublime. when i first heard the soundtrack i was very moved and impressed by both the guitar and string pieces but assumed they were done by different composers. nope. greenwood did it all (albeit with help on the string pieces from a conductor). great stuff. i'll be following his film scores from now on.

[reydiyohed]

pap smear

[iscottm]

i let this thing play in the background...felt pretty uncomfortable after 5 minutes or so....love it