Max Richter - Songs From Before

180g Vinyl LP! Mastered From Original Sources!

Hailed as the most influential composer of his generation, electro-acoustic polymath Max Richter defies definition: composer he may be, but he is also pianist, producer, remixer, and collaborator, and beyond argument one of the most prolific of contemporary musical artists.

Inspired equally by Bach, punk rock and ambient electronica, Richter’s sonic world blends a formal classical training (he graduated from the Royal Academy of Music, and was a pupil of renowned composer Luciano Berio) with modern technology.

Beautifully recorded and cinematic in scope, ‘Songs From Before’ once again carries a pensive, emotionally resonant tone. Punctuated by Robert Wyatt’s distinctive, understated readings of Haruki Murakami’s text, the music evokes forgotten memories or lost histories, a series of bittersweet articulations that seem suspended somewhere between a dreamy sense of awe and melancholia. The title refers to the fact that, as well as this being a kind of specimen case of music written over a long period, the album carries other music inside it - with the sources ranging from music between 5 and 300 years old - either used as starting points for Max’s own writing, or submerged deep within.

"...a stunning manifesto where the strings and Richter's piano pull one another between poles of regret and redemption" - Pitchfork.com

"Richter finds the poignant in the ordinary; the sacred in the everyday." - Stylus Magazine

"Epic yet personal, 'Songs From Before' is a joy that firmly cements Max Richter at the forefront of contemporary composition. Essential." - BOOMKAT

"Songs From Before is a deeply moving, near-sacred work." - XLR8R

"Spellbinding" - The Milk Factory

Features:
• 180g Vinyl
• Download Card
• Mastered From Original Sources

Musicians:
Max Richter, piano & electronics
Louisa Fuller, violin
Natalia Bonner, violin
John Metcalfe, viola
Ian Burdge, cello
Chris Worsey, cello

Selections:
Side A:
1. Song
2. Flowers For Yulia
3. Fragment
4. Harmonium
5. Ionosphere

Side B:
6. Autumn Music 1
7. Time Passing
8. Sunlight
9. Lullaby
10. Autumn Music 2
11. Verses
12. From the Rue Vilin