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Oct 30, 2019 By Christopher Roberts Thom Yorke

Thom Yorke of Radiohead released a new solo album, ANIMA, back in June via XL (stream it here). Now he has shared a video for “Last I Heard (...He Was Circling the Drain).” The animated video was made by Art Camp, an experimental studio based in Brooklyn. According to a press release, the video “is set in a dream world inspired by fragments of Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood’s imagination and made up of over 3000 hand-illustrated frames.” Watch it below, followed by Yorke’s upcoming tour dates.

Art Camp had this to say in a press release statement: “Our first and last goal was to serve the feelings of the song and the record. Thom shared a list of visions with us, disconnected images from his dreams, and we expanded on it with visions from everyone who joined the video team, over a dozen of us. At its core, our intention was to communicate the experience of feeling completely on your own, surrounded by people you see yourself in but don’t understand, who have lost their minds to the city and can’t see that you need their help.

“The process for making this animation was extremely iterative and cyclical, and started from every direction at once. We experimented with clay sculpture and one-cent 3D horses, crowd simulations and charcoal dust, linear storytelling and abstract expression. We made the entire video and threw it away, made it again, threw it away, dozens of times. This of course was stressful but also beautiful.

“Our goal is to create work that is surprising to ourselves, that we don’t understand how it happened. A lot of that has to do with trusting in the collaborative process- finding a wavelength where everyone feels free to go crazy in their own way, and push for what they most believe in. Our values are constantly being tested and rewritten in pursuit of creating a community where people really do feel loose and free and safe. When it works the best, you end up with work that speaks in everyone’s voices and one voice.”

ANIMA was accompanied by short film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, a “one-reeler” set to three tracks from the album, and you can watch that over at Netflix now.

Once ANIMA was released (only a few days after being announced), two of its songs, “Twist” and “The Axe,” made our Songs of the Week list at #1 and #2 respectively. Then Yorke released Not the News, a remix EP featuring four remixes of ANIMA‘s “Not the News” (check it out here).

In August a new Yorke song, “Daily Battles,” was shared, as was an instrumental version of the song by jazz legend Wynton Marsalis. Both versions were recorded for Motherless Brooklyn, an upcoming film written, produced, directed by, and starring Edward Norton that’s due out November 1. Yorke’s version features Flea. Marsalis’ version features Joe Farnsworth, Russell Hall, Isaiah J. Thompson, and Jerry Weldon. Both tracks were released together on a 7-inch and Yorke’s version made our Songs of the Week list.

Then he stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! with his Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes band (Yorke, Nigel Godrich, and visual artist Tarik Barri) to perform three songs from the album: “Traffic,” “Twist,” and “Dawn Chorus.”

Last year Yorke scored his first feature film, Suspiria, and the soundtrack, Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film), was released last fall via XL.

Thom Yorke Tour Dates:

2020:

03-28 Fairfax, VA - EagleBank Arena
03-30 New York City, NY - Radio City Music Hall
04-04 Chicago, IL - United Center
04-05 St Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
04-08 Denver, CO - Mission Ballroom
06-19 Glasgow, Scotland - SEC Hall 3
06-20 Manchester, England - o2 Victoria Warehouse
06-23 London, England - Eventim Apollo
06-24 London, England - Eventim Apollo
07-01 Gdynia, Poland - Open’er Festival
07-01-04 Roskilde, Denmark - Roskilde Festival
07-06 Amsterdam, Netherlands - AFAS Live
07-09 Milan, Italy - Ippodromo del Galoppo di San Siro
07-11 Trenčín, Slovakia - Pohoda Festival
07-12 Prague, Czechia - Karlin Hall
07-13 Berlin, Germany - Max-Schmeling-Halle

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