Here’s an interview with Jonny Greenwood in the Computer Music Journal, where he talkes about recording, electronics and the Ondes Martenot. Below is the part of the material that contains fragments of Jonny’s ‘direct communication’ with the magazine. [thanks Juliet & Natalia]
A fascinating feature present in Radiohead arrangements is a pronounced use of vibrato and continuous pitch changes to generate sensual backdrops. Prominent examples are the impressive orchestral string glissandi of How to Disappear Completely (KidA), particularly the unsteady reeling from 5:04 to 5:24, and the gliding siege of Ondes Martenot underlying Where I End and You Begin (HTTT).
Mr.Greenwood scored the former, and the orchestral repertoire is one of his many enthusiasms:
- We haven’t started manipulating sounds of orchestral instruments. I just feel that there are still so many sounds and textures to get out of orchestras that are unlike anything, and can be far more disturbing/magical than most digital manipulation. I think part of me disengages with a sound when I can hear it’s digital. Some people seem to think the orchestra, as a piece of technology, is somehow past it. But microtonal string music and choirs and suchlike are far more affecting to me, because it’s simultaneously natural and unnatural. As a band we listen to a lot of Penderecki.
Computer Music Journal, Vol. 28, Issue 1 – Spring 2004.
Below is the part of the material that contains fragments of Jonny’s ‘direct communication’ with the magazine.
A fascinating feature present in Radiohead arrangements is a pronounced use of vibrato and continuous pitch changes to generate sensual backdrops. Prominent examples are the impressive orchestral string glissandi of How to Disappear Completely (KidA), particularly the unsteady reeling from 5:04 to 5:24, and the gliding siege of Ondes Martenot underlying Where I End and You Begin (HTTT).
Mr.Greenwood scored the former, and the orchestral repertoire is one of his many enthusiasms:
- We haven’t started manipulating sounds of orchestral instruments. I just feel that there are still so many sounds and textures to get out of orchestras that are unlike anything, and can be far more disturbing/magical than most digital manipulation. I think part of me disengages with a sound when I can hear it’s digital. Some people seem to think the orchestra, as a piece of technology, is somehow past it. But microtonal string music and choirs and suchlike are far more affecting to me, because it’s simultaneously natural and unnatural. As a band we listen to a lot of Penderecki.
The Ondes Martenot is another passion: Mr.Greenwood actually played in a concert with Ondes virtuoso Jeanne Loriod and her pupils in 2002, and he includes her name on the album credits for HTTT.
- I heard the Turangalila symphony at school when I was 16, and became fixated on Messiaen and the Ondes Martenot, although all I could do was read descriptions of the instrument, and listen to Turangalila over and over. I didn’t even see one until 5 years ago, and finally found one a year later. I love this instrument – it deserves to be as ubiquitous as the saxophone. I’m quite evangelical about this. I feel we’re doing our bit by putting it in a rock group. According to Messiaen, when it first emerged, the very composers who should have welcomed it — the musique concre`te movement – rejected it as being too lyrical and expressive… exactly the qualities that make it so great. Makes the Theremin look like a toy!
For yet another side to this explorer, beyond the rigid sequencer technologies of KidA, Mr.Greenwood is experimenting with interactive programs like Max/MSP, and Cycling’74 also gets a credit on the most recent album. He thinks it unlikely that he will be producing solo computer music, though:
- The idea is that taking a laptop off a shelf is like picking up a guitar or an organ. Newer technology, but not better, just different. Having said that, I can’t imagine using it alone. When we play the song Gloaming live, the laptop takes over for the end section, using a Max/MSP patch which steals sections of whatever everyone else is doing, and carries on when they all stop. But I don’t use laptops for generating sounds very often, mainly sound manipulation and MIDI generation. I prefer generating sounds other ways…
…I’ve always felt uncomfortable having to use other people’s software to make music. However limitless sequencers, audioeditors, and plugins claim to be, you still ?nd yourself being forced, however subtlely, to work in certain ways. My copy of Emagic Logic insists on looping the first four bars whenever it can (although it’s good software in lots of ways)… With Max/MSP I finally got to think about sound and MIDI, and their manipulation, in a much purer way… I felt that all direct contact with computers had been taken away from me, until I found Max/MSP.
Max/MSP… suits my chaotic, wire-filled constructions. Lots have half-?nished ideas embedded in them, which aren’t used, and they’ve a tendency to crash during concerts. But I love it all: I could fill pages with obsessive stuff about Max/MSP. I’ve even started lurking in chatrooms, and idolizing shadowy figures like jhno and Karlheinz Essl…
…With our last record, there was not time for programming in the studio, so every patch had to be written and working before we started. We had a corner of the studio set up for Max/MSP stuff, and it was all done in real time as we recorded. Part of the band, rather than one person with a computer and four people watching, as tended to happen with previous records. It’s also becoming more and more important at our concerts.
Radiohead news on this day..
- ‘In Rainbows’ wins Ivor Novello Award – 2008
- Scott Walker documentary on BBC 1 – 2007
- Vote Radiohead into Xfm’s Hall Of Fame – 2006
- Radiohead play ‘The Tourist’ in Manchester – 2003
- Shepherd’s Bush Empire gig to be broadcast – 2003
- “Coldplay’s Chris Martin recorded a track with Radiohead” – 2003
- First review: O’Riley covers Radiohead and it rocks! – 2003
- Hail to the Thief player – 2003
- Radiohead in Edinburgh – 2003
- Radiohead to play Berlin – 2001
