Imagine experiencing your body floating in the air without ever having jumped off the ground. That’s what it feels like watching JUNUN perform live. The album features Israeli musician Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood - Radiohead’s lead guitarist and keyboardist, and 19 Indian musicians called The Rajasthan Express. Throughout the performance, Ben Tzur delivers impeccably gentle Hebrew, making sure he translates it into English without a breath, the ease and fluidity of languages unbroken and humble.
On numerous occasions he stood tall at the center of the stage, Greenwood respectfully standing at the back in order to let the musicians of the Rajasthan Express shine. “You are blessed on the grace and the hardships, on the longing and the sacrifices, and on everything that will bring me closer to you,” Tzur smiles. “Modeh ani modeh, I am grateful to you.”
Watching JUNUN feels like being welcomed into some grand ceremony, and so this summer the Elma Arts Complex Luxury Hotel will host a variety of JUNUN’s magic in ode of the album recorded in Mehrangarah Fort in Jodhpur city: a photo exhibition of JUNUN featuring photographs by Sharon Katan on display for the first time in Israel, a screening of the documentary by Paul Thomas Andrerson which followed the compilation of the album, followed by a full performance with the participation of Shye Ben Zur, Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express.
With a debut back in 2015 at the New York Film Festival, the documentary Junun tracks the evolution of Tzur collaborating with Greenwood, the producer Nigel Godrich, and the musicians who perform as the Rajasthan Express while they made the album in a 15th-century fort in Jodhpur. The Express conjured the faith, music, language and sounds that India offers. Not only is Paul Thomas Anderson’s entire documentary a welcome embrace into an unknown world that shines a spotlight on Hindi, Hebrew and Urdu, but a heartfelt view of how the world can function when music, traditions and love come together to create art, unity and hope.
“Junun” is Hindi for “mania of love,” with songs riding a grooving hand drum rhythm, horns soaring in the sky softly building to a chaotic, hypnotic whirl. It’s all there: songs dance between dholak and nagara drums, stretch into trombone, tuba and trumpet, and don’t forget the kamaicha, sarangi, electric guitar and harmonium too. If they’re not playing, trumpets are raised high, smiles stretched wide, hands clapping frantically and waving.
The Rajasthan Express hail from India, Greenwood from England, Tzur from Israel, and yet they all sounded blessed to be able to sing and dance to Hebrew — but then that’s the point of the musical project of JUNUN: breaking down borders in order to bring beauty into the world.
JUNUN Live Journey: July 15, 19:00. NIS 180. Elma Arts Complex, MORE INFORMATION HERE.
Exhibition | Film | Performance
19:00 Photography Exhibition | Artist: Sharona Katan
20:30 JUNUN – Documentary Film | Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
21:30 Live Performance | Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and the Rajasthan Express