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Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood Unfurls Guitar Minimalism in Aussie Live Video

Jonny Greenwood, Australia

Last December, Jonny Greenwood joined Australian electro-acoustic collective ACO Underground for a surprise appearance at Sydney venue the Standard. Their collaboration included a rendition of an excerpt from “Electric Counterpoint,” a late-’80s piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich. Now, as The King of Limbs Part 2 points out, video of the performance has surfaced online. Greenwood’s flickering guitar work on the Reich piece, above, suggests the flavor of some of his knottier latter-day Radiohead work. The ACO Underground also joined Greenwood on two numbers from his There Will be Blood score, “Prospector’s Quartet” and “Detune II,” which you can watch below.

Greenwood met Reich at a Polish festival in 2011, where the Radiohead guitarist also played “Electric Counterpoint.” Reich has said Greenwood’s performance impressed him enough to inspire his own Radiohead-influenced piece, an 18-minute chamber-music composition titled “Radio Rewrite.” Greenwood might have time for some other non-Radiohead ventures, such as his recent The Master score, considering Thom Yorke currently has a full European tour planned for his band Atoms for Peace.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=MeMwi5-eofs%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QJ7976JkPps%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded