Jonny Greenwood
'Bodysong'
On Capitol Records
Grade: AThe Jonny Greenwood solo project is not a new thing, unless you're living in the United States.

Last fall, documentary filmmaker Simon Pummel approached Greenwood and the rest of his internationally famous band, Radiohead, to provide a score for Pummel's newest venture, Bodysong. The rest of the band was tired-albums had just been made, tours finished and they were longing to be at home with their families. Everyone, that is, except for Jonny.

While his brother Colin, and bandmates Thom Yorke, Ed O'Brien and Phil Selway headed back for their homes and children, Greenwood headed back into the studio to compose what would turn out to be a masterful revival of the film score.

Greenwood has long been famous as Radiohead's boy-genius multi-instrumentalist. Not only is he a guitar god, but he's also a master of the piano, glockenspiel, xylophone, digital musical equipment and even the archaic and extremely difficult Ondes-Martenot. He is also the primary writer of string scores for Radiohead albums.

These distinctive and surprising talents all come together to create 40 minutes of incredible music on the documentary's self-titled film score, Bodysong.

From the first fluttering and anxious notes of "Moon Trills" all the way to the final strings of "Tehellet," Bodysong lifts, tilts, undulates and smooths until the listener cannot help but be completely drawn in. However, when listening to the album simply as an album, the listener cannot help but feel as if something is missing. It is almost as if the absence of the film itself is heard through the music.

Greenwood wrote the music to match up to the film, and one can only imagine how this beautiful soundtrack will sound as it comments on the beginning of life, joy and sorrow, and finally, the inevitable eve of death.
Many songs sound like something out of a classic Disney movie with all the strings, pianos and tinkling glockenspiels. Greenwood has experimented with those sounds previously on Radiohead's 2000 release, Kid A, on the song "Motion Picture Soundtrack." The composition there was raw and sparse. On Bodysong, Greenwood has perfected the methods he only previously explored. "Moon Trills" and "Tehellet" are both firmly entrenched in that style of composing, which makes sense because they respectively begin and end the album. Greenwood makes sure that Bodysongis a very circular score, reflecting both the cyclical nature of life and death and also seeming to comment on the infinite nature of the human condition.

Other songs are sharper. "Clockwork Tin soldiers" actually sounds like its name and builds into a mass of sound that is both awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time. Likewise, "convergence" is a dizzying whirlwind of almost overwhelming percussion that, true to its title, eventually abandons its discordance and comes together in one grand and somehow oppresive beat.

Greenwood often uses bizarre and uncomfortable rhythms to underscore his music, both in the two songs mentioned and also in "moon mall," which features a high-pitched beep that sounds suspiciously like a faltering heart monitor. Listener s find themselves lurching and skipping along with the irregular beep, as if waiting for the final flatline. Landscapes of electronic buzz and distorted harps are piled over this beeping and clanking.
Taking a page from previous work he's done with Radiohead, Greenwood also uses jazz to the best of its ability. "Splitter" is a practical jazz explosion. "body radio/glam lights/broken hearts" sounds like the full-length version of the horn and band crescendo at the end of Kid A's "The National Anthem." Colin Greenwood helps out on "24 Hour Charleston," the only song with a solid bass line on the entire album. "24 Hour Charleston" also may be the best song on the score, simply because it actually stands on its own as a composition.

The abstract nature of the album is not surprising considering Greenwood's dedication to the film score. moving pictures have created two distinct types of music to accompany them: the soundtrack and the score. Bodysongis not a collection of songs that match up to different parts of the movie. It is instead a film score in all its glory.

The Bodysong documentary film has no narration. Actually, it has no speaking at all. It is a collection of celluloid clips from the past 100 years, documenting life from the moment of conception to the instant of death. In this documentary, Greenwood's music isthe narration. He composed music that would speak without words and that would entrance without gaudy tricks.

Bodysong is a testament to the incredible musical talent that lies within Jonny Greenwood. He displays a true aptitude for multi-instrumental composition and a surprising understanding of the interplay between moving picture and sound. Radiohead fans and music aficionados will be delighted when they hear what the British boy-genius created when he was given enough room to really play as he wished. Bodysongis a testament to the power of the film score.