Sundaze 2001

Hello,  time to rap up Max Richter's time at Sundaze in a final visit to his discography.......


Today's artist is is a German-born British composer who has been an influential voice in post-minimalist composition and in the meeting of contemporary classical and alternative popular musical styles since the early 2000s. Richter is classically trained, having graduated in composition from the Royal Academy of Music and studied with Luciano Berio in Italy.Richter also composes music for stage, opera, ballet and screen. He has also collaborated with other musicians, as well as with performance, installation and media artists. He has recorded eight solo albums and his music is widely used in cinema.  .......N-Joy

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Combining the discipline of his classical background with the inventive spirit of electronic music, Max Richter's work as a producer and composer speaks to -- and frequently critiques -- 21st century life in eloquent and evocative ways. On early masterworks such as 2002's Memoryhouse and 2003's The Blue Notebooks, he united his childhood memories and commentary on war's devastating aftermath into gorgeous, aching music; with 2015's eight-hour Sleep, he challenged the increasing disposability of art and music as well as audiences' ever-decreasing attention spans. Richter's fascination with the growing role of technology in everyday life was a major theme of releases spanning 2008's collection of bespoke ringtones to the music for a particularly paranoid 2016 episode of the TV series Black Mirror. Despite the high-concept nature of much of his work, Richter always maintains a powerful emotional connection with his listeners; 2012's Recomposed: The Four Seasons, an experimental reimagining of Vivaldi's violin concertos, topped classical charts in over 20 countries. The emotive quality of his music translated perfectly to scoring and soundtrack work, which ranged from documentaries such as Waltz with Bashir (2008); feature films including Mary Queen of Scots (2018); television series like Taboo (2017); and stage productions including Infra (2008) and Woolf Works (2015), both projects with Richter's longtime collaborator, choreographer Wayne McGregor. Richter's mix of modern composition, electronic music, and field recordings was as influential as it was innovative, and paved the way for like-minded artists such as Nico Muhly and Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Born in West Germany in the mid-'60s, Richter and his family moved to the U.K. when he was still a little boy, settling in the country town of Bedford. By his early teens, he was listening to the canon of classical music as well as modern composers including Philip Glass, whose music was a major influence on Richter. The Clash, the Beatles, and Pink Floyd were also important, along with the early electronic music scene; inspired by artists such as Kraftwerk, Richter built his own analog instruments. He studied composition and piano at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music, and in Florence with Luciano Berio. He then became a founding member of the Piano Circus, a contemporary classical group that played works by Glass, Brian Eno, Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, and Julia Wolfe, and also incorporated found sounds and video into their performances. After ten years and five albums for Decca/Argo, Richter left the group and became more involved in the U.K.'s thriving electronic music scene, collaborating with the Future Sound of London on 1996's Dead Cities (which features a track named after him) and The Isness; he also contributed orchestrations to Roni Size's 2000 album In the Mode.

Richter's own work evolved from the Xenakis-inspired music of his early days into something that included his electronic and pop influences. His 2002 debut album, Memoryhouse, introduced his mix of modern composition, electronica, and field recordings. Recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the album explored childhood memories as well as the aftermath of the Kosovo War in the 1990s and was hailed as a masterpiece. Two years later, Richter made his FatCat debut with The Blue Notebooks, which incorporated readings from Franz Kafka's Blue Octavo Notebooks and Polish writer Czesław Miłosz by actress Tilda Swinton into dreamlike pieces for strings and piano that touched on the Iraq War and Richter's early years. Released in 2006, Songs from Before paired his plaintive sound with texts written by Haruki Murakami and delivered by Robert Wyatt. In 2008, he issued 24 Postcards in Full Colour, a collection of intricate ringtones envisioned by Richter as a way to connect people around the world. That year also saw the release of his music for Ari Folman's Golden Globe-winning film Waltz with Bashir. Focusing on electronics instead of a typical orchestral score, it was Richter's highest-profile soundtrack project to date. He then worked on several other film scores, including music for Benedek Fliegauf's Womb, Alex Gibney's My Trip to Al-Qaeda, and David MacKenzie's Perfect Sense. Another scoring project, Infra, marked the beginning of Richter's enduring collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor. Commissioned by the Royal Ballet in 2008, Infra was a ballet inspired by by T.S. Eliot's classic poem "The Wasteland," and the the 2005 London terrorist bombings. Richter re-recorded and expanded his music for the 2010 album Infra, his fourth release for FatCat Records.


Richter began the 2010s with soundtrack work that included the award-winning scores to Die Fremde (2010) and Lore (2012). The composer reunited with McGregor for 2012's Sum, a chamber opera based on Sum: Forty Tales of the Afterlives, a collection of short stories by neuroscientist David Eagleman about the possibility of life after death. That year also saw the release of one of Richter's most popular albums, Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons. An avant-garde, loop-based reworking of the composer's timeless set of violin concertos, it topped the classical charts in 22 countries, including the U.K., the U.S., and Germany. In turn, McGregor choreographed a ballet, Kairos, to Richter's recomposition. Disconnect, the score to Henry-Alex Rubin's film about the impact of technology on relationships, arrived in 2013. His other releases that year included the score to Wadjda, which was the first feature-length film made by a Saudi Arabian woman (director Haifaa Al-Mansour); the music to Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox and Ruairí Robinson's sci-fi excursion The Last Days on Mars. Richter also worked with Folman again on the music to The Congress, an adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's novel The Futurological Congress.


In 2014, Richter launched a mentorship program for aspiring young composers and wrote music for HBO's The Leftovers, which also featured pieces from Memoryhouse and The Blue Notebooks. The following year saw the arrival of Sleep, an eight-hour ambient piece scored for piano, strings, electronics, and vocals that Richter described as a "lullaby for a frenetic world and a manifesto for a slower pace of existence." The piece premiered at a Berlin performance where the audience was given beds instead of seats. Sleep and From Sleep, a one-hour adaptation, were released in September 2015. The following year, Richter provided the score to the sci-fi/horror film Morgan and the disturbingly cheery music for "Nosedive," an episode of Black Mirror that took the all-consuming nature of social media to extremes. Released in January 2017, Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works drew from his score for McGregor's 2015 Royal Ballet production inspired by three of Virginia Woolf's most acclaimed novels. It was followed that May by the soundtrack compilation Out of the Dark Room. That September, Richter's Emmy-nominated music for the BBC One drama Taboo was released.


Richter remained busy on soundtrack work in 2018, with projects including the music for the HBO TV series My Brilliant Friend as well as the scores to films like Hostiles, White Boy Rick, and Mary Queen of Scots, which won a Best Original Score -- Feature Film Award at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. In October 2019, Deutsche Grammophon issued Voyager: Essential Max Richter, an expansive retrospective that included two previously unreleased pieces written for Sleep.


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"Berlin By Overnight" was originally written by Max Richter. These remixes, however, are drawn from violinist Daniel Hope's interpretation of the piece, which appeared on Spheres, his 2013 album for Deutsche Grammophon. The German label, whose roots date back to the 19th century and is now owned by Universal Music, have called upon four remixers: Berlin favourite Efdemin, Canadian producer CFCF, New York-based keyboardist Lorna Dune and UK multi-instrumentalist Tom Adams. DG released this eclectic Remix EP. digitally and on vinyl together with 4 remixes by internationally acclaimed remixers, who were carefully selected and picked up on the nocturnal, minimal and repetitive atmosphere. The international line up of remixers, each bringing a unique position and adding to the records diversity.

Max Richter n Daniel Hope - Berlin By Overnight (Remixes) (flac 147mb)

01 Berlin by Overnight (Version for Violin and Double Bass) 1:33
02 Berlin by Overnight (CFCF Remix) 5:51
03 Berlin by Overnight (Efdemin Remix) 7:19
04 Berlin by Overnight (Lorna Dune Remix) 6:46
05 Berlin by Overnight (Tom Adams Remix) 5:27

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According to his press release, Max Richter’s pioneering 8 hour work SLEEP work was one of 2015’s big commercial and critical success stories. Within two weeks of the digital release, Sleep and the one-hour adaptation ‘from Sleep' had topped the iTunes Classical charts around the world, making it the best-selling classical album worldwide in 2015. Sleep reached the #1 spot in 26 countries, whilst ‘from Sleep also hit the pop charts in several countries. Sleep and  ‘from Sleep made Best Of 2015 lists in Rough Trade, Drowned In Sound, Crack and BBC 6 Music.  Therefore Building on this success, a series of Sleep remixes was released as an album digitally on 19th February and on vinyl on 4th March.

From the outset it appears that Max Richter is open to the fiddling, remixing and presenting of his work in an alternative way. The remixes that are presented here are varied and add perfectly to the canvas that has been left behind to sonically daub on. The immediate interest here are the Mogwai and Clark one remixes. They are the acts that historically will deliver the more abrasive take on the tracks and subsequently the more subversive. Both acts do not disappoint. Mogwai take Path 5 down a tortuous kosmische/post-rock route ascending to a coda of cavernous power drums, see-sawing synth arpeggios and blistering guitar distortion, and Clark vaults the same parts thru a spiralling vortex of stacked harmonies and cinematic detours, whereas Digitonal treat those parts with genteel neo-classical and electronica sensibilities.Taking on Dream 3, the pseudonymous scientist-cum-composer Jürgen Müller turns in a stereo-drifting meditation on solo piano, strings and electronics recalling Gas soundtracking some noirish BBC period drama, and Marconi Union revise Dream 13 as an airborne ambient classical waltz.

Max Richter - Sleep Remixes   (flac 407mb)

Path 5 (Delta)
01 Path 5 (Short Edit) 6:38
02 Path 5 (Mogwai Remix) 9:53
03 Path 5 (Mogwai Remix Edit) 5:41
04 Path 5 (Clark Remix) 7:42
05 Path 5 (Clark Remix Edit) 2:33
06 Path 5 (Digitonal's Theo in Dreamland Mix) 6:47
07 Path 5 (Digitonal's Theo in Dreamland Mix Edit) 4:43
Dream 3 (In the Midst of My Life)
08 Dream 3 (Short Edit) 5:25
09 Dream 3 (Jürgen Müller Remix) 10:54
10 Dream 3 (Jürgen Müller Remix Edit) 3:31
11 Dream 3 (Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Remix) 10:16
12 Dream 3 (Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith Remix Edit) 6:45
Dream 13 (Minus Even)
13 Dream 13 (Short Edit) 3:22
14 Dream 13 (Marconi Union Remix) 5:53
15 Dream 13 (Marconi Union Remix Edit) 3:48

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Virginia Woolf drowned herself at age 59. She's remembered as one of the twentieth century’s most important writers and pioneers of the feminist movement, which is why her inspiration lives on with strength through other artists. One recent example would be choreographer Wayne McGregor who, in 2015, produced a ballet celebrating three of her novels, and armed with his educated taste, he hired modern classical hero Max Richter to deal with the score.

The first movement, Mrs. Dalloway, opens with bells chiming behind the only known recording of Virginia Woolf's speaking voice (she took her own life in 1941) in existence. Though the thought of a dead woman talking should unnerve me, it doesn't, and Richter's piano playing on “In the Garden” behind the beautiful strings played by the Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg and conducted by Robert Ziegler just make me feel so at ease. Even the string swells on “War Anthem” sound peaceful, despite the sub-movement's title.  After a few bell chimes at the beginning of “Meeting Again,” Richter plays the same piano line for the rest of the sub-movement's six-minute duration while the orchestra builds, adding strings one by one to create this great layering effect. I might be wrong about the exact instruments here, but it sounds to me like the sub-movement starts with one cello playing whole notes along with Richter's piano chords, then a violin comes in with half notes, then the violin drops out and a viola plays a subtle melody, then the violin keeps coming back in with those half notes sweeping over everything until it's just the piano and the cello once again.

The second movement, Orlando, also opens with a quote from Virginia Woolf, this time spoken by Sarah Sutcliffe. The compositions on this movement are noticeably peppier than the slower, more languid Mrs. Dalloway. The second sub-movement of Orlando (the first sub-movements of Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando are both spoken word), “Modular Astronomy,” features pizzicato strings and marks the first time that Richter plays a synthesizer instead of a piano (or at least changes his synth to something other than the piano setting). The next sub-movement, “Entropy,” is nothing but sparse synthesizer hits, and it makes an engaging listen, and it contrasts quite well with the energetic and cinematic “Transformation” that follows it. “The Tyranny of Symmetry” blows the relaxing atmosphere that Three Worlds had been building up out of the water, but the tranquility returns on “The Explorers,” “Persistence of Images,” and “Genesis of Poetry,” all of which primarily feature Richter's synthesizers (although the tranquility in “The Explorers” doesn't show up until the cello part starts playing). There's also some really interesting and almost cryptic-sounding synth work on “Possibles” that I really dig, that part really gets me.

The third movement, The Waves, consists of one sub-movement: “Tuesday.” “Tuesday” opens with a reading of Virginia Woolf's suicide note, addressed to fellow author Leonard Woolf, Virginia's husband. I did not know what I was hearing was a suicide note upon my first listen to this album, and it placed the entire recording into a new context. After Woolf's note, the orchestra plays in a manner just as slow as Mrs. Dalloway, but in a way that feels more sad than atmospheric. The single singer that comes in at around the eight-and-a-half-minute mark feels almost like another violin as the vocals blend with the celesta (or synthesized celesta) and strings behind them. The vocals stop at some point before the fifteen-minute mark, but I'm not sure where because they just blend in with the strings too well. The entire “Tuesday” is ethereal, and makes me just sit there and think about life and death.

Max Richter - Three Worlds - Music from Woolf Works   (flac 289mb)

Mrs Dalloway
01 Words 1:02
02 In the Garden 5:17
03 War Anthem 6:56
04 Meeting Again 6:07
Orlando
05 Memory Is the Seamstress 0:35
06 Modular Astronomy 3:14
07 Entropy 1:32
08 Transformation 2:06
09 Morphology 3:06
10 The Tyranny of Symmetry 1:26
11 The Explorers 2:04
12 Persistence of Images 3:15
13 Genesis of Poetry 3:54
14 Possibles 1:29
15 Love Songs 2:33
The Waves
16 Tuesday 21:37

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To commemorate the 15-year anniversary of The Blue Notebooks’ original release, Richter has attached a bonus disc of extra material. Thankfully, he forgoes the usual demos, half-finished ideas and other random minutia that would interest only the most dedicated of superfans in favor of material that alters, reimagines and updates the original music. Remixes, re-recordings and alternate arrangements of some of the album’s highlights showcase Richter’s restless spirit and the inherent flexibility in his compositions.

The two tracks that stray farthest from Richter’s normal fare are remixes by dance producers Jlin and Konx-Om-Pax. On the latter’s treatment of “Iconography,” part of Richter’s defining touch is lost. The ghostly choruses and reverbed synthesizer from the original are easily recognizable, but these touchstones fade away as the track progresses. The thumping dance beats and distorted bass lines, however well-executed, feel at odds with the consistently inward-looking atmosphere of the rest of the album.

The downfalls of Konx-Om-Pax’s contribution are exactly what make Jlin’s remix of “Vladimir’s Blues” so awe-inspiring. The original track, even though it’s just more than a minute long, is one of the most immediately beautiful moments on The Blue Notebooks. The constantly evolving bass line and tasteful rubato are massively expressive and endlessly listenable. Throughout Jlin’s remix, her signature use of interlocking rhythms and scattered percussion programming is present, but the best elements of Richter’s composition are still the focal point. She retains the delicate treatment of space and texture that “Vladimir’s Blues” had, and even with the new track’s beat-oriented structure it never breaks kinship with the album’s contemplative nature. Even better, it imagines the alternate perspective of an artist with different experiences, processes and aspirations toying with the same emotional and sonic palette.

In addition to these outside contributions, Richter himself offers three new versions of the standout track “On the Nature of Daylight.” Each one takes the composition into an alternate direction for a distinct mood and taste. On top of the original’s slow ascent and single-line string writing, the “Orchestral Version” offers a lush romanticism while the “Entropy” edit softens the composition’s edges and fills in the gaps between notes for a droning, ethereal mix.

Of all the iterations of “On the Nature of Daylight,” the version titled “This Bitter Earth” is by far the most arresting. Pulling the vocal track from Dinah Washington’s soul hit of the same name, Richter takes his already affecting music and uses the naked human voice to add another layer of tangible meaning. The political reckonings that underlie the album come to the fore here, letting Washington’s crisp voice hang and echo into the mix while she offers hope in the face of endless suffering. This is no naïve optimism; rather, it feels like a move towards solidarity in the face of relentless turmoil.

Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks (15 Years) ( flac   340mb)

01 The Blue Notebooks 1:19
02 On the Nature of Daylight 6:11
03 Horizon Variations 1:52
04 Shadow Journal 8:22
05 Iconography 3:38
06 Vladimir's Blues 1:18
07 Arboretum 2:53
08 Old Song 2:11
09 Organum 3:13
10 The Trees 7:52
11 Written on the Sky 1:40
Bonus
12 A Catalogue of Afternoons 1:50
13 On the Nature of Daylight (Orchestral Version) 6:36
14 Vladimir's Blues 2018 1:29
15 On the Nature of Daylight (Entropy) 6:53
16 Vladimir's Blues (Jlin Remix) 3:45
17 Iconography (Konx-Om-Pax Remix) 3:55
18 This Bitter Earth / On the Nature of Daylight 6:12

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