Jonny Greenwood

Jonny Greenwood – Phantom Thread (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 55:59 minutes | 581 MB | Genre: Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Nonesuch

Famous for being one of the most active members of the band Radiohead, the English Jonny Greenwood also has a secret identity, the one of movie composer. Since There will be blood in 2008, he is indeed the accredited composer of Paul Thomas Anderson, the director of the very renowned Magnolia, released in 1999.

For Phantom Thread, Greenwood’s task was enormous, because his partition is present on the almost entirety of the movie, which lasts more than two hours. It enshrouds the pictures, just like the main character (a fashion designer) spends his time enshrouding the bodies of the women he dresses in his creations. But this music also works as a lead weight echoing the torments continuously inhabiting the character played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who pursues a complex romance with one of his models (Vicky Crieps). To write his partition, Greenwood admits getting his inspiration from Bach’s Goldberg Variations recorded by Glenn Gould. We indeed remotely find the obsessive side (the famous “ground bass”) from the German composer’s work. Once again, it’s the anguished fashion designer that Greenwood tries to personify through his music.

The movie takes place in the mundane London of the 50s, and thus this is also, more simply, the outdated beauty of this era that the director and his composer tried to transpose. The luxury afforded to Greenwood to record his partition (more than 60 musicians at his disposal at Abbey Road) was probably the ideal formula to stick to all of this beauty. Among the shiniest tracks of the album, let’s cite House of Woodcock and most of all Phantom Thread I, whose legato and particularly acute chords favor the glamour of the movie, as well as its muted tragedy. However, on occasion, Greenwood abandons this sometimes overwhelming orchestration to go to the piano and perform, alone, themes looking toward impressionism (I’ll Follow tomorrow). Whether accompanied by a big orchestra or by a simple piano, Jonny Greenwood’s goal is the same in the end as when he works for Radiohead: reaching new heights of emotion.
(more…)

Jonny Greenwood – Bodysong. (Remastered) (2003/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:33 minutes | 480 MB | Genre: Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © XL Recordings

Jonny Greenwood is reissuing his 2003 soundtrack album Bodysong in a digitally remastered version. The LP consists of music the Radiohead multi-instrumentalist and composer wrote for Simon Pummell’s 2003 documentary of the same name. The album, famously, featured a track that was later incorporated into Greenwood’s breakout score for 2007’s There Will Be Blood. Unlike that soundtrack, Bodysong features a wide sound and stylistic palette, incorporating electronic elements. Greenwood’s brother and fellow Radiohead member Colin Greenwood also plays on the album. The reissued album will come out in gatefold vinyl and CD editions on May 18.
(more…)