Thom Yorke and long-term friend and collaborator Stanley Donwood have been working together since 1994 when Donwood first started producing the artwork for Radiohead’s album covers. Since then, Donwood has been the sole supplier for pretty much all of Radiohead’s art. This summer, the pair will be taking their ‘Test Specimens’ exhibition to London (Wednesday May 25th – Sunday 29th) at 8 Duke Street, the event will bring together 60 pieces of artwork that were made between 1999 – 2001 while the band were producing Kid A and Amnesiac. The pair of albums were recently re-issued in a 21st-anniversary box set. You can hear the previously unreleased track “Follow Me Around” below.
Fans of either Yorke or Donwood may notice some familiar designs laced through the promotional material, the band’s famous bear logo can be seen transformed into a dot-to-dot, and an early draft of now fan-favourite ‘Nude’. But aside from any repeated imagery, it’s immediately clear who this exhibition is from. The menacing existentialism clearly points toward a Donwood, Yorke pairing. So far, there is little information on tickets for the exhibition, but watch this space for updates in the, hopefully, not so distant future. The Events curator, Siobhan Andrews Kapoor, said in a statement with Fad Magazine, “TEST SPECIMENS offers an extraordinary, intimate glimpse into the minds of these creative geniuses at a pivotal moment in British cultural history. For us the viewers, it’s a privilege to be let behind the scenes and explore this fantastical world for ourselves.”
Yorke himself has been busy too recently, consistently releasing both new songs with his new band The Smile, featuring Jonny Greenwood and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner, as well as a handful of tracks that we can only assume are coming from an upcoming solo project, the first since the release of his last solo project ANIMA back in 2019. “5.17”, and more recently, “That’s How Horses Are”, have both surfaced recently with the intention of being on the upcoming final series of Peak Blinders. Listen to “That’s How Horses Are” below.
Yorke’s other project The Smile is also set to take part in a lengthy world tour through May, June, and July this year. Tickets for the tour’s UK dates have long since sold out, but most of the festival dates and a handful of other European gigs still have tickets available. You can look into that here.
