From album
OK Computer
Radiohead · 1997 · Track 4
Details
TonalidadBm
Compás4/4
Tempo62 BPM
Duración4:24
CompositorColin Greenwood / Ed O'Brien / Jonny Greenwood / Phil Selway / Thom Yorke
ÁlbumOK Computer
Año1997
ISRCGBAYE9701372
Credits
Music Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien, Jonny Greenwood, Phil Selway, Thom Yorke
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The story behind
The atmosphere of *Exit Music (for a Film)* is built from silence and contained tension. The song, originally intended for a film's end credits, evokes the urgency of an imminent escape. It is said that the image of Juliet, played by Claire Danes, holding a gun to her head in the film adaptation, was a key starting point for Thom Yorke. The idea of two people who should have escaped before tragedy struck resonates in its composition, creating a deeply personal and melancholic feeling. In its studio version, the unsettling sounds are achieved in unconventional ways: it is said that a recording of children playing played backward was used, and it was the first time the band employed the mellotron. The distinctive distorted bass, on the other hand, comes from the Shin-ei Companion FY-2 fuzz pedal.
Recorded in 1996 and early 1997 in Oxfordshire and at St Catherine's Court mansion in Bath, this piece ended up being part of *OK Computer*, released in 1997. The band, working with producer Nigel Godrich, sought to distance themselves from the guitar-centric sound of their previous work, *The Bends*. The percussion, which bursts in forcefully at the end, adds a dramatic climax to the piece. In live performances, Jonny Greenwood uses techniques such as sliding a coin along his guitar neck and a Roland Space echo processor to recreate those ethereal sounds. Although it did not appear on the film's official soundtrack, the song has resonated in other contexts, appearing in episodes of series like *Father Ted* and *Black Mirror*, and in films like *Unfaithful* (2002).
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