When Radiohead was working on their 2011 album The King Of Limbs, Thom Yorke drew inspiration from composer George Fenton’s work on the BBC documentary series The Blue Planet, and that led to the song “Bloom.” Now it’s been announced that the band has recorded an updated version of the song for BBC’s next oceanic natural history series, Blue Planet II, and they’ve teamed up with the legendary Hans Zimmer to do it.
The new version of the track, called “(ocean) bloom,” is inspired by aquatic sounds, features new vocals from Yorke, and was recorded with the BBC Concert Orchestra. Yorke described the process of working with “such a talent” like Zimmer as “liberating”:
“‘Bloom’ was inspired by the original Blue Planet series so it’s great to be able to come full circle with the song and re-imagine it for this incredible landmark’s sequel. 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.”
The series will be narrated by David Attenborough and includes footage of previously un-filmed creatures, like a hairy chested species of crab named after David Hasselhoff, so in terms of appeal, Blue Planet II seems to be an embarrassment of riches.
There’s no audio of the new song, described as a “five-minute prequel,” yet, but it’s set to be released on September 27th. In the meantime, watch a Radiohead performance of the original “Bloom” below.
