Arrive early at the Radiohead show for a musical party

Fans arriving early for emotionally charged Radiohead shows at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena this week could be pleasantly surprised British guitarist Jonny Greenwood opened the evening alongside many musicians from North India and an Israeli expatriate.

Junun, the Greenwood group and poet-songwriter Shye Ben Tzur gathered for the album of the same name in 2015, is a transcultural utopian behemoth, marrying devotional Qawwali, Muslim Roma, Manganiar and Sufi musical traditions with alliances Western guitars and Hebrew, Hindi and Urdu poetry. It is a cheerful alchemy that, upon arrival, could stand as contrary to the dark rock art of Radiohead. But closer listening provides a lot to awaken the adventurous ear.

"We do not want the music to come out like Ben Tzur says on the phone, talking somewhere on Highway 401 between Montreal and Toronto.

Onstage at TIFF Bell Lightbox Wednesday, Greenwood remembers how the trumpet player Aamir Bhiyani channeled the style of Miles Davis without ever hearing the legend: "It was like playing in the group of James Brown," he laughs

Born in Israel at the end of 1990s, Ben Tzur could not do much to escape the crisp accords of Creep.In North India at the age of 19, he had not followed the band's sound evolution So, when a friend telephoned unexpectedly while Ben Tzur was preparing to play Kolkata, saying that Greenwood had heard one of his songs in the Negev desert in Israel and wanted to speak, the singer was more than a little confused.

"We talked and he was very curious about my way of approaching music, "recalls Ben Tzur. "When we arrived in the UK, we invited him to play at the concert.I can tell you, the man is a genius."

After the show, all participants agreed that there was something magical happening

"Jonny makes the composition shine". , all participants took off at Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan, India, where Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich set up a makeshift studio, with a natural echo chamber filled with birds under the roof. 39, main floor. Greenwood asked his frequent friend and collaborator, filmmaker PT Anderson, to come and capture the experience, while Ben Tzur brought together a great group from northern India composed mostly of devotional Muslim players, who 39 He nicknamed The Rajasthan Express

Together, Greenwood and Ben Tzur, who collected Junun's compositions, set up guidelines for recording: the brbad would be the sound of the album ; The only Western instruments should be their guitar, their bbad and the Greenwood computer. Instead of Western drums and strings, they found Indian equivalents in Manganiar music and imported wedding bands of British rule.

All artists, who also included Greenwood's wife, Sharona Katan, Arab-Israeli Jewish visual artist, agreed to work together without interfering with a

As evidenced by the documentary of Anderson in 2015, when they appeared three weeks later, they produced an astonishing musical and artistic homogeneity.

"From a cultural and religious point of view, it's interesting, and we're all aware of the unfortunate political circumstances," says Ben Tzur about Junun's diverse staff. "But the natural situation is, it does not matter [what anyone’s faith is] .If you feel that someone plays, whether it's Christian, Hindu or Jewish, it's just a question of heart, of fundamental humanity. "

Junun had not played together for nearly two years when Ben Tzur received another surprise call Radiohead was leaving for a European, South American and Israeli tour , and Greenwood hoped to reunite the group to open it.

Ben Tzur jumped at the opportunity and opportunity to test his theory of fundamental humanity. This came to him Mind when the Radiohead tour went to Israel last summer amid protests from the BDS movement, the campaign to promote the boycott against Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.

"This who is strange, it is calling people together, does not really matter where they come from, to share a moment of humanity.And you may have the choice to do it and fill your life, and the life of your surroundings, with these feelings. Or you may decide to take political agendas and you want to form barriers, perhaps because you believe that there is unfairness in the world and that you think the solution to this is to create more division. " "For me, it's not really [make sense] .I think it's just the opposite."

"Almost all of the band is Muslim, all of them very believers." When we play, some songs are praises for the Prophet Muhammad and others for Krishna, without really seeing the difference between the prophets as such, but seeing the unity of the believer, that's where we come from. "

En route to the third leg of the tour, Ben Tzur says that the experience has hardened his belief, as well as his belief that Radiohead is" one of the best bands in the world ".

"It's not that you need to build bridges, you have to create vision," he says. "I'm more interested in putting things in my life that bring people together instead of dividing them."