The Radiohead guitarist changed rock music, then conquered the world of soundtracks. But can he revolutionise the church organ with an eight-hour composition?
Jonny Greenwood is in the studio in his Oxfordshire home, surrounded by a cornucopia of weird and wonderful instruments. He almost trips over a stray autoharp while walking around the room on a video call, showing me his pianos, his ondes Martenots, his recorders of different sizes, his guitars, a tambura, a steel-strung harp and any number of stringed instruments, including a secondhand cello that he has named Steven Bennett (after a previous owner, who left his school name tag on the instrument).
“This room is my teenage fantasy come true,” he says. “As a kid I’d go past music shops and wish I could own every instrument there and play them whenever I wanted. I’m lucky enough to be in that position now.”
