Thom Yorke Drops "Gawpers" & His First Classical Track, "Don't Fear the Light"
His first non-soundtrack solo releases of 2019.
A few weeks ago, Thom Yorke delivered a live debut of a new solo track known as “Gawpers.” Now, taking to the BBC Radio 3 airwaves, the Radiohead icon is coupling the official release of “Gawpers” with the premiere of another new composition, “Don’t Fear the Light.”
Debuted via Thom Yorke’s weekend takeover of the BBC Radio 3 program Unclassified, “Gawpers” and “Don’t Fear the Light” currently stand as his only non-soundtrack solo releases of 2019. Notably, “Don’t Fear the Light” is also billed as Thom Yorke’s first attempt at classical music as a solo artist. Like “Gawpers,” the aforementioned classical cut was recorded as it was being performed during Thom Yorke’s “Minimalist Dream House” event at the Philharmonie de Paris earlier this month. The “Minimalist Dream House” performance played host to the initial debut of both “Gawpers” and “Don’t Fear the Light,” but neither piece has been released in an official, formal capacity until now. Currently, Yorke has yet to reveal plans for any more solo efforts.
“I guess my goal is, honestly, to carry on finding in my places where I don’t fully understand what’s going on,” Thom Yorke told Radio Milwaukee last month, sharing some insight into his current artistic motivations. “So, where I’m out of my depth. What I don’t want to do is be creating music and think while I am creating it, or whatever I am doing, if it is my terrible pictures, or writing or whatever…What I don’t want to do is be sitting there thinking how wonderful it is. At that point—that is the moment I will give up.”
You can stream Thom Yorke’s “Gawpers” and “Don’t Fear the Light” records online via the official BBC Radio 3 website — skip to the 27:30 mark to begin streaming that pair of tracks.
For more, check out Thom Yorke’s Suspiria Unreleased Material EP.
