Shye Ben Tzur on Politics, Touring With Radiohead

The Ajmer-based Israeli composer sheds light on the recent controversy around a gig featuring Junun, his collaborative project with Jonny Greenwood.

- Urvija Banerji

Last week, radiohead guitarist-composer Jonny Greenwood tweeted, simply and perhaps somewhat questionably, “The Indians are coming….” The tweet was accompanied by a photograph of a group of decidedly non-Radiohead musicians: turbaned, mustachioed, kurta-pajamaed. The whole image, with its artistically aged aesthetic, could have passed for a historical photograph from Rajasthan’s past, if it were not for the presence of Greenwood and a lanky, long-haired Israeli man, who appear nestled in the midst of the turbans and mustaches.

Shye Ben Tzur, the lanky, long-haired Israeli, is the composer behind “Junun,” the project and eponymous album on which he and Greenwood collaborated two years ago along with the pictured Rajasthani musicians, who are collectively known as The Rajasthan Express. Greenwood’s tweet was intended to announce his participation in the six shows where Junun will be opening for Radiohead on their A Moon Shaped Pool Europe tour.

But while the act of opening for his own band may come across as somewhat solipsistic, Greenwood’s self-indulgence stops there. The guitarist-composer seems to have accomplished the all-too-rare feat of bringing Eastern musical traditions to Western stages without making the whole thing about himself (see: George Harrison’s sitar lessons with Ravi Shankar, Paul Simon’s Graceland). Rather, Junun’s clear star is Ben Tzur, whose extensive knowledge of Indian classical music shines through on the 2015 album. Greenwood’s presence in the gritty, unexpected basslines and guitar work is undeniable, but he allows himself the backseat as Ben Tzur and the Indian musicians take the lead.