BBC Radio 3’s “Unclassified” offered the radio premiere of two new Thom Yorke songs, “Don’t Fear the Light” and “Gawpers,” which the singer recently played live in Paris. “Don’t Fear the Light” is a classical piece, arranged to be played by two pianos, electronics and modular synthesizer. The musician tapped French piano duo Katia and Marielle Labeque to perform the piece.
“Don’t Fear the Light” plays at the 27:00 mark and “Gawpers” at 47:20 on the radio program, which also features tracks by David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner, both part of the Minimalist Dream House show.
ladies and gentlemen, a live recording of the piano pieces i was recently commissioned to write by the Philarmonie de Paris for Katia & Marielle Labeque will be broadcast on Unclassified BBC R3 as part of ‘Minimalist Dream House’ this Sunday 28th April. https://t.co/VFcUuppEZm
— Thom Yorke (@thomyorke) April 25, 2019
Both original songs were debuted in concert on April during Yorke’s “Minimalist Dream House” performance at the Philharmonie de Paris. Yorke has performed “Gawpers” several times on tour, but neither has bee available to hear in full previously. These new tracks follow Yorke’s soundtrack for the recent Suspiria remake, the musician’s first classical composition effort. The singer plans to release a new solo album this year.
Radiohead were recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Yorke declined to attend. He told Variety of the honor, “We’ve had it explained to us, so it’s cool. But we don’t really understand it as English people. I think our problem is essentially that every awards ceremony in the UK stinks. We grew up with the Brits, which is like this sort of drunken car crash that you don’t want to get involved with. So, yeah, we don’t really know what to make of it.”
