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Radiohead and Oscar-winning soundtrack composer Hans Zimmer yesterday revealed their new collaboration ‘(Ocean) Bloom), which accompanies a preview clip for the upcoming BBC natural history documentary series ‘Blue Planet II’

The track borrows a vocal line from ‘Bloom’, the opening track to Radiohead’s 2011 challenging LP ‘The King Of Limbs’, but in all other respects is a wholly original work.

Hans Zimmer, who won an Academy Award for his work on ‘The Lion King’, said in an interview that he enjoyed the process of bringing the band’s creation to a more cinematic scale ‘It’s actually quite liberating starting with a vocal.’

Singer Thom Yorke describes how the original ‘Blue Planet’ series, which first aired in 2001, impacted his later work and especially ‘Bloom’:

"It seeped into my subconscious. I found myself dreaming about these creatures quite a lot. When we did all those weird recordings for King Of Limbs they must have been in there, somewhere."

In the same interview (below) guitarist Jonny Greenwood emphasises the conservation aspect of the series: ‘Such amazing work is being done by the BBC. It’s something to be really proud of. The research that’s being done. This is a great way to publicise an important cause.’

Hans Zimmer, who in a stellar career has also received four Grammy Awards, three Classical BRIT Awards and two Golden Globe, was full of praise for the quality of cinematography on the series, which will broadcast later this year. "With the images, and music, you can ‘get under people’s skin. Maybe make them feel about things slightly differently.

"If it can make you love and appreciate this beautiful world, and realise we’re maybe meant to leave it better than we found it."

Yorke, who in the past has been extremely vocal on environmental causes, is also optimistic about the potential for the series to be a force for good. "The fact this TV series is coming out at this moment, I hope, rekindles our love of the oceans and our desire to understand really, our relationship to them. This is bigger than you."

More about: Radiohead