Exit Music: Radiohead Reimagined

This year’s Brisbane Music Festival (BMF) ended on an extreme high with arrangements of Radiohead hits reimagined by James Dobinson. James was to have also appeared in Exit Music to play electric keys and piano, but he received a last-minute call-up to a gig on Broadway! This proves the calibre of talent involved in the BMF, which this year has involved 34 events, with 40 creative people participating, seven Australian Premieres and nine World Premieres. Artistic Director, Alex Raineri, has commissioned more than 70 new contemporary works in his six years at BMF’s helm. In the festival’s tribute category, Radiohead’s music seems perfect for some mash-ups of classic components – since some of the band’s arrangements have involved orchestral accompaniment and, of course, experimental electronic music. 

It’s hard to believe that it is 30 years since the Oxfordshire band released their ‘Pablo Honey’ album containing the iconic song ‘Creep’ – so I guess it was about time to revisit three decades of music across nine studio albums. I admit I have never been a huge fan of Thom Yorke’s lead vocals, so the BMF’s take on Radiohead was refreshing for me. The young audience member sitting next to me was a super Radiohead fan but very new to orchestral music and had not attended any other classical music in Brisbane. My first thought was: he’s not going to get into this. But you know what? He absolutely loved the concert and was whistling and applauding at the closing standing ovation along with everyone else in the small but capacity crowd.

There was so much to be excited about in this collection of performers. For starters, the versatile Irena Lysiuk (recently seen as the leading lady in Wesley Enoch’s The Sunshine Club, and roles for Opera Queensland, The Little Red Company) can perform any style – from rock to opera. Her voice was perfect for this mix of tracks, reaching from lower tones into the soprano range for songs like ‘High and Dry’. She also plays guitar. (pictured right, photo by Ruby-Clark).

The set opened with ‘Creep’ and featured Irena on vocals with Alex Raineri on piano, Katherine Philp on cello, and composer/arranger Luke Volker stepping in at short notice on electric keys. He did an amazing job. For ‘Hunting Bears’ Alex moved to the harpsichord, an intriguing instrument and well suited to the haunting tone of this piece. Irena and Katherine performed ‘Burn the Witch’ as a duo – Katherine’s experience at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts seemed to particularly suit the Asian flavour and rhythms of this piece. Other tracks included ‘No Surprises’, ‘2+2=5’, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’, ‘My Iron Lung’, ‘Jigsaw Falling Into Place’, ‘Street Spirit’ and ‘Exit Music’. The performances included some four-part harmony by all the performers, an astounding duet on piano by Alex and Luke, and a stunning solo instrumental by Katherine, exacting every rich tone from the cello strings. During one piece, Luke slowly placed pieces of A4 paper onto the piano strings while Alex was playing, adding a surprisingly eerie and evocative fizz to the notes that sounded very much at home in Radiohead’s world. The rousing, cheering, whistling crowd simply wanted more at the end of this gig. BMF have won over some new fans – and certainly added some new artists to my Spotify playlist.

Beth Keehn

Stay tuned for BMF 2024: https://brismusicfestival.com

Photos: Brisbane Music Festival & Jai Farrell, unless otherwise specified.