Radiohead team with Hans Zimmer for Blue Planet II

Here’s a surprising collaboration; Radiohead have been working with Hans Zimmer, the German composer behind the Inception, Dunkirk and Gladiator soundtracks. The result is ocean (bloom), a reworking of the opening track from the band’s 2011 album The King of Limbs. The resulting song will be used as the opener for BBC nature series Blue Planet II.

You can hear the song in the above video, which begins with the dulcet tones of David Attenborough, Blue Planet’s narrator. The new version trades Bloom's atonal percussion for a more mellow string and piano arrangement, with Thom Yorke's haunting vocals floating in and out between Attenborough’s voiceover.

According to the Radiohead frontman, the Blue Planet collaboration brings the song full circle. “Bloom was inspired by the original Blue Planet series,” he revealed, “so it’s great to be able to come full circle with the song and re-imagine it for this incredible landmark’s sequel. Hans is a prodigious composer who effortlessly straddles several musical genres, so it was liberating for us all to work with such a talent and see how he wove the sound of the series and Bloom together.”

Take a listen to the collaboration in the player above. Blue Planet II will screen on BBC One later this year.