Radiohead don’t often work with an outside collaborator, but even they couldn’t resist the overtures of Hans Zimmer. The band and Zimmer have reworked The King of Limbs track “Bloom” for a forthcoming episode of the BBC nature series Blue Planet II.
According to BBC, the new version is dubbed, “(ocean) bloom”, and will feature in a five-minute prequel to the series released on September 27th. The song was recorded by the BBC Concert Orchestra under the direction of Zimmer, with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke contributing new vocals.
In a press release, Yorke said, “‘Bloom’ was inspired by the original Blue Planet series so it’s great to be able to come full circle with the song and reimagine it for this incredible landmark’s sequel.” He added, “Hans is a prodigious composer who effortlessly straddles several musical genres so it was liberating for us all to work with such a talent and see how he wove the sound of the series and ‘Bloom’ together.”
Zimmer most recently scored Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk and is also contributing music to the forthcoming Blade Runner 2049. Radiohead, meanwhile, are supposed to be on a break following the lengthy world tour behind their latest album, A Moon Shaped Pool.
Watch Radiohead’s in-studio performance video for “Bloom”:
