Composer/musician Shye Ben Tzur, guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and a group of Indian musicians known as the Rajasthan Express, who came together in Jodhpur, India, last year to record the album Junun, reunite to perform the album on tour in the UK and Europe. The concerts begin with a performance at The Troxy in London on Friday, as part of the Illuminations festival, which also includes a free, weeklong exhibit of artwork and films from the recording of album at the Omeara Gallery in London starting today. The European tour continues with concerts in Turin, Lausanne, Milan, Rome, and Berlin, before concluding at Le Guess Who? Festival in the Netherlands. Ben Tzur and the Rajasthan Express then take the music to Thailand for the Wonderfruit Festival in December and to Tennessee for the Big Ears festival in Knoxville in March.
See below for all of the currently announced tour dates or visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
The musicians first reunited to play Junun in its entirety at Barbican Hall in London earlier this year. The Financial Times gave the show four stars, praising the music’s “uncomplicated exuberance … this was music that transported the listener, not just to the state of Rajasthan but to a state of mesmeric bliss.”
Junun was recorded in a makeshift studio inside the 15th-century Mehrangarh Fort in Rajasthan in early 2015. The album, was released late last year on Nonesuch Records to critical acclaim. The Times of London calls it "one of the most inspired releases of the year ... Intriguing, sinuous, and essential listening."
JUNUN ON TOUR
*Junun featuring Shye Ben Tzur & the Rajasthan Express