The second assembly of Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood, and the Rajasthan Express concludes a decade of silence with the announcement of Ranjha. Scheduled for release on May 8, 2026, through World Circuit Records, the album marks a shift in physical geography. While their 2015 debut Junun was tracked inside the walls of the Mehrangarh Fort in India, this eleven-track successor was captured within Greenwood’s private studio in Oxford, England.
"In many ways a continuation of what Junun put forward… a total of 21 musicians are part of Ranjha." — Shye Ben Tzur
The Logistics of Sound
The project maintains its bulk, utilizing 21 musicians to navigate the intersections of Qawwali and Manganiyar folk traditions. The title track, a Hebrew composition, has been released ahead of the full collection to signal the tonal shift. Despite the branding of "folk-fusion," the record functions as a rigid documentation of the ensemble’s current emotional state and melodic habits.
The album will be sold in a 4-panel digisleeve featuring a lyric booklet.
The ensemble includes members of the Rajasthan Express, a group often reduced to a monolith in Western press.
Composition duties are shared between Ben Tzur and Greenwood.
Technical Shift: Fort to Studio
| Feature | Junun (2015) | Ranjha (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Location | Mehrangarh Fort, Rajasthan | Oxford Studio, England |
| Acoustics | High ceilings, stone, open air | Controlled, intimate, isolated |
| Scale | Experimental assembly | Refined, contemporary edge |
| Personnel | The Rajasthan Express | 21 Musicians |
Cultural Friction and Reflection
The move from a 15th-century Indian fort to a modern English studio suggests a sanitization of the environment, or perhaps a move toward calculated precision. Jonny Greenwood, known for his Radiohead associations, continues to act as the bridge between European art-rock and the Manganiyar tradition. The music remains a window into a specific history, but the glass has been polished in a different climate.
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The title track is available for immediate consumption on digital platforms.
Background: The Ten-Year Echo
The announcement follows the 10th-anniversary reissue of Junun, which was recently pressed on yellow and orange vinyl to mark its endurance in the "world music" market. Shye Ben Tzur, an Israeli-American based in Ajmer, serves as the primary pivot point for the group's linguistic and spiritual identity. The decade between recordings indicates this is not a touring machine but a slow-moving artifact that only appears when the financial and logistical stars of the various participants align.