Jonny Greenwood

Norwegian Wood Nonesuch*****

Building on the originality of his debut score, Bodysong, and the ambition of his second score, There Will Be Blood, Radiohead guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Jonny Greenwood has created perhaps the most challenging and exciting film music of the past few years for Tran Anh Hung's Japanese film Norwegian Wood. Switching between searing orchestral passages (taken from Doghouse, his Krzysztof Penderecki-inspired BBC commission), elegiac sonatas for string quartet and plucked solo guitar ballads, Greenwood combines warm tone clusters, bright colours and short melodic lines into a score of remarkable visceral power and emotional force, at once lyrical and plaintive. Norwegian Woodis the best kind of score. It succeeds as a complete music composition and redefines what is possible in film music. See nonesuch.com

Download tracks: Bit About Yourself, You Want to Properly, Quartet Tone Bloom