Watch the emotive new video for Jonny Greenwood’s ‘Spencer’ track, ‘New Currency’

Watch it on NME first

An emotive new video has been shared to accompany Jonny Greenwood’s latest release, ‘New Currency’ – a song from the new Spencer soundtrack. You can watch it below.

The film, starring Kristen Stewart, was released last month and features a full score from Greenwood. The film’s accompanying soundtrack was also released digitally in November with a physical release expected next year.

Speaking to NME earlier this year about how he got involved with the project, Greenwood explained: “I had an email from the director, Pablo Larrain. I didn’t know his work, so he sent me his film The Club, which I found very affecting. I enjoyed corresponding with Pablo, firing each other up with enthusiasm about what the music could be. He’s a very energetic, positive person.

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“I explained to Pablo that there’s lots of baggage attached to classical music in films about the royals. You either use actual Handel or pastiche Handel. I watched a few royal films, which were full of sweeping shots of Buckingham Palace, with fanfare horns and tinkling harpsichords on top. I wanted instead to emphasise how chaotic and colourful Princess Diana was, in amongst all that baroque tradition. It’s what the film does too.”

Speaking about the process of scoring the film, Greenwood added: “I suggested we get a baroque orchestra in, so I wrote music in that regular royal style, with kettle drums, trumpets, harpsichords and pipe organs. Then, while they were playing, we substituted the orchestra with free jazz players. They could play those instruments, but we had it mutate into a free jazz performance. That was so exciting, the jazz players were just amazing.

“The trumpet player, Byron Wallen, blew my mind. That said, at first they were too restricted by the chords. It was like they were trying to improvise to the theme from Antiques Roadshow. The key was to still sound vaguely baroque, while leaving enough space for true anarchy and chaos.”

Reviewing the film, NME said: “All scenes, whether soft-hearted or stress-inducing, benefit from a magnificent score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood.

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“The film’s ending is both exhilarating and steeped in pathos because we know the grim fate that will befall Diana eventually. Spencer won’t please staunch royalists, but Larraín and Stewart have succeeded in presenting a fresh and perhaps enlightening impression of one of the 20th century’s most dissected figures. This Diana isn’t ‘England’s rose’ or a ‘queen of hearts’, but a traumatised, cornered animal, desperately trying to claw her way out of a gilded cage.”

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