Junun Freesheet.Indd

Junun © Shin Katan Shye Ben Tzur + Jonny Greenwood + The Rajasthan Express Junun Fri 11 Mar, 8pm 8pm Ah! Kosmos Shye Ben Tzur is an Israeli poet, singer and 8.40pm interval composer who has spent many years studying 9pm Junun and composing with Sufi Qawwali musicians in India. His music blends western, Middle These times are approximate and Eastern and sub-continental traditions, sung are subject to change in Urdu and Hindi as well as Hebrew, into a heady brew of trans-cultural euphoria. Ah! Kosmos Basak Gunak laptop and synths Profoundly influenced by witnessing Indian classical Yigit Bülbül guitar maestros Zakir Hussain and Hariprasad Chaurasia Ana Roman guest in concert, Ben Tzur says of his moment of musical epiphany: ‘It touched my heart so deeply,’ he Junun explains. ‘Indian music is so vast and so deep, Jonny Greenwood guitar, keyboards, electronics and the more I learn different things about it, I Shye Ben-Tzur guitar, flute, vocals realise how ignorant I was. It just doesn’t stop.’ Zaki Nizami vocals Mohammed Zakir Aliase Aghan vocals Ben Tzur invited Radiohead’s guitarist – and Ajmeri Khan dholak drum renowned composer in his own right – Jonny Hasmat tuba Greenwood to play at a performance in London, Aamir Damami trumpet and they resolved to record an album together in Ajaj Damami trombone India. Eschewing conventional studio surroundings, Narsi Lal Solanki nagara drum Greenwood and Radiohead producer Nigel Nathoo Solanki nagara drum Godrich joined Ben Tzur and The Rajasthan Express Chugge Khan Rajasthani percussion at the imposing fifteenth century Mehrangarh Fort, an atmospheric location Ben Tzur arranged the use of via the Maharaja of Jodhpur. Junun is an ecstatic exemplar of ever-evolving Nigel Godrich and some of Rajasthan’s finest musical influences and meldings, at once agelessly musicians. Crafty minimalist strategies, Indian acoustic and electronically modern. With a title brass band, Qawwali devotional singing, Ben meaning ‘mania’ or ‘euphoria’ – ‘a madness of Tzur’s mellifluous exaltations and Greenwood’s love’, as Ben Tzur calls it – the album was recorded guitar and ondes Martenot lead us through a night and day over three weeks, the compositions journey that is at once authentic and inventive.’ unfolding into vibrant collective life. ‘The songs themselves had been written over a long period Support comes from producer and instrumentalist of time,’ he explains, and took on different shapes Basak Günak (AH! KOSMOS), whose début album when played by the cross-continental ensemble Bastards paints euphoric melodies over techno in the intense surroundings of the fort. ‘That’s why rhythms with reverberant guitar and floating vocals. we have a double album,’ says Ben Tzur. ‘We didn’t really know how they would come out... Programme notes © Richard Fontenoy there were a lot of things that we recorded that we liked and we didn’t want to leave them out.’ Produced by the Barbican in association with Convergence Having provided soundtracks for Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, There Will Be Blood convergence-london.com and Inherent Vice, Greenwood invited the director to film at Mehrangarh in what Ben You might also like… Tzur calls ‘a meeting of friends’. The resulting film of the same name became Anderson’s first documentary, receiving widespread praise at festival screenings and streamed via the curated MUBI arts website. It captures music-making in an authentically intimate way that brings the viewer into the process, complementing and enhancing the album. Using an impressionistic fly on the wall technique rather than relying on narration to explain events on-screen, the documentary observes the interaction of musicians as they record and live together, intercut with the bustling life in the streets, skies and music shops of Rajasthan. While Ben Tzur is both composer and de facto dirtsong conductor of the twenty or so artists who bring his music to life so vividly, as Anderson’s film Black Arm Band: dirtsong reveals, he is as much an egalitarian part of 4 & 5 May the ensemble as its instigator. Greenwood concentrates intently on his guitar, laptop or the The Nile Project uniquely expressive ondes Martenot (an early Sun 19 Jun, Islington Assembly Hall electronic instrument), completely absorbed in the music. Notably, both the documentary and the Possibly Colliding: album itself reveal just how far from the clichés a weekend curated by Nils Frahm previously attributed to so-called world music 1–3 Jul that Junun – and contemporary cross-cultural collaboration in general – has progressed. Sign up to Young Arts Academy (ages 14–25) for free Convergence masterclasses with Shye Ben The deft percussion, swooning strings and evocative Tzur, Dan Deacon and Luke Abbott vocals of The Rajasthan Express shimmer and 12–17 Mar shine among infectious brass derived from parade and wedding music, speaking volumes of diverse places and states of ecstasy, musical and spiritual. The ensemble singularly avoid the easy pitfalls Check out our full music programme at of ethno-exoticism or post-modern shallowness. barbican.org.uk/contemporary ‘They’re people I’ve known for fifteen years; they’re like family to me,’ as Ben Tzur told The Sign up to our email list at Quietus. He describes the songs as love poetry to barbican.org.uk/e-updates the almighty, ecstatic devotionals drawing on both his own background and the Qawwali singers’s Follow us traditions and history as itinerant Muslim musicians performing for the Hindu maharajas of India. @BarbicanCentre Ben Tzur told the Barbican, ‘even when we /BarbicanCentre recorded it, every time we played a song, somehow we would play it differently; we tried to Barbican-Centre keep it very elastic. We have the structure, we’re always open to see what happens in the moment; Barbican Centre basically, we’re just creating the situation with the cast of people and with the music, and let it go – and uplift.’ Junun was released by Nonesuch Together we champion bold, in November 2015, The Times dubbing the album ambitious work. ‘one of the most inspired releases of the year’, Please give generously. while the Guardian called it ‘joyous and hypnotic’. Text ’BARB99 £5’ to 70070 barbican.org.uk/support-us Tonight’s presentation of Junun in its entirety is in association with Convergence, whose artistic director Glenn Max says: ‘Nothing short of ground-breaking, this continent- spanning collaboration beautifully illustrates the possibilities of a cultural convergence when The City of London placed in the sensitive hands of visionary artists Corporation is the founder and principal funder such as Jonny Greenwood and Shye Ben Tzur, of the Barbican Centre .

Load more