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Talk Art

Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood

Season 11, Ep. 4

RADIOHEAD x Talk Art EXCLUSIVE EPISODE! Russell and Robert meet Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood at the Standard Hotel in London to discuss 30 years of friendship and their ongoing, longterm artistic collaboration. Initially meeting at Exeter University, Donwood has created the cover art for Radiohead’s ground-breaking albums since The Bends in 1996. Six of his paintings from the album sleeves were recently on display at Christie’s headquarters in London, alongside drawings, lyrics and digital art curated by the artists.


We explore Radiohead's forthcoming release KID A MNESIA EXHIBITION: an upside-down digital/analogue universe created from original artwork by Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood and sound design by Nigel Godrich to commemorate 21 years of Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac albums. 


KID A MNESIA EXHIBITION will be available beginning November 18th as a FREE download for PlayStation 5 (HERE), PC and Mac at EPIC GAMES STORE. A trailer is now live at: https://youtu.be/AOinMjQ9jo8


PLUS! Buy their new hardback book "Kid A Mnesia: A Book of Radiohead Artwork" at Waterstones (click here). A celebration of the process and artwork created for the Radiohead albums Kid A and Amnesiac. Whilst these records were being conceived, rehearsed, recorded and produced, Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood made hundreds of images. These ranged from obsessive, insomniac scrawls in biro to six-foot-square painted canvases, from scissors-and-glue collages to immense digital landscapes. They utilised every medium they could find, from sticks and knives to the emerging digital technologies. The work chronicles their obsessions at the time: minotaurs, genocide, maps, globalisation, monsters, pylons, dams, volcanoes, locusts, lightning, helicopters, Hiroshima, show homes and ring roads. What emerges is a deeply strange portrait of the years at the commencement of this century. A time that seems an age ago - but so much remains the same.


Follow @Radiohead, @ThomYorke, @StanleyDonwood on Instagram. Special thanks to @TheStandardLondon. This episode was recorded live at the Library Lounge Sound Studio in The Standard, London in October 2021.


For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. Talk Art theme music by Jack Northover @JackNorthoverMusic courtesy of HowlTown.com We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArt. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. For all requests, please email talkart@independenttalent.com

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