Josh Cohen: Radiohead for Solo Piano | Adelaide Festival 2022 review

Cohen reimagines and reinterprets what were already wonderful pieces of Radiohead’s music to invent something completely new.

Josh Cohen plays Radiohead. Picture: Emma Phillips, supplied

Josh Cohen: Radiohead for Solo Piano

Contemporary Music – Australia

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

The Summerhouse

March 6

Melbourne-based pianist Josh Cohen plays the songs of British band Radiohead on the piano. That’s it, that’s the whole show.

And while on paper that may seem a little one-dimensional, in reality it’s anything but.

In fact, in reality it’s a thing of real beauty as Cohen cuts and pastes, reimagines, extends and reinterprets what were already wonderful pieces of music to invent something completely new.

Adelaide Festival 2022. Josh Cohen: Radiohead for Solo Piano.

Sitting in front of an interactive light piece by artist Joshua Batty, Cohen opens with a 20-minute, trance-inducing epic based around Daydreaming before launching into the instantly familiar opening chords of Karma Police.

Half an hour, and two songs, into the concert Cohen jokingly asks the audience: “Would you like to hear some more Radiohead? Because I know some Coldplay”.

High and Dry is possibly the “straightest” piece of the night, sticking closely to the Radiohead script, but it was just a warm-up.

“Are you ready for an epic?” he asks. “Well buckle up.”

The “epic” is perhaps 30 minutes of Everything In It’s Right Place, merging into Paranoid Android – a swirling, pulsing, sustain-heavy and ultimately very satisfying piece of music.

Cohen, who is about to relocate to Berlin, closes with No Surprises and a thunderous round of applause.