SLEEP: Tranquility Base

The new EP, out now

Out today, SLEEP: Tranquility Base is an EP of new music, returning to Max’s ground breaking 8-hour lullaby for a frenetic world. 

‘A look at the material from a more electronic standpoint, this is a chance for me to see what this music means to me now, in this moment… 

‘SLEEP is a kind of counter argument to what’s going on in the world. It’s a sort of alternative proposition to how things could be or how things are… towards the world we’re living in and helps to shine a light on the things we can do better. 

The original thing which made us want to make this piece was a sense of being oversaturated – with data, with information – overstimulated… All of that is just worse now, there’s more of the same – much more of the same – and that makes the piece continually relevant’. 

Listen and buy here

Free & Equal Vol. 1

Announcing Studio Richter Mahr’s first release

Today, Yulia and I have announced Free & Equal Vol. 1, an EP raising money for Médecins Sans Frontières.

Tracks from Duval Timothy, CHAINES, cktrl, Hannah Kendall and more were all recorded here at Studio Richter Mahr. It was a joy to see into their creative worlds.

Join us on Human Rights Day, Saturday 10th December at KOKO in London to celebrate the release.

Pre-order the EP exclusively on Bandcamp and buy your tickets for the event here.

Studio Richter Mahr will pay 100% of profits to Médecins Sans Frontières (UK) (charity number: 1026588)

Blue Dot Festival

Max headlines the opening night of the festival

Based at the epic Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, Blue Dot Festival combines creativity and curiosity.

Accompanied by projections on the Lovell Telescope, Max is the opening night headliner, performing VOICES and Recomposed.

Tickets are available on Friday 11th November, buy your tickets here.

Woolf Works in London

The ballet returns to the Royal Opera House next March

Inspired by the novels of the incredible Virginia Woolf, Wayne McGregor’s ballet – with music by Max – first premiered in 2016.

It’s since won an Olivier award and the music has been released as Three Worlds.

7 years later it’s back at the Royal Opera House.

1st – 23rd March 2023, get your tickets here.

MADDADDAM in Toronto

A new ballet premiering in Toronto this November

Continuing his collaboration with award-winning choreographer Wayne McGregor, MADDADDAM is a new ballet co-commissioned by the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Ballet.

Inspired by a dystopian triptych of novels by author Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam, themes of extinction and invention, hubris and humanity are spliced together with aspects of Atwood’s activism and her deep connection to the Canadian landscape, past and present.

The ballet premieres in Toronto 23rd – 30th November.

Tickets are on sale now, get your tickets here.

Recomposed live in Berlin

Max returns to Berlin this December…

For my last performance of the year, I’m taking Recomposed back to where it all began, ten years ago.

It was in my studio in Mitte that I first worked on recomposing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and in Pankow where we recorded the record in 2012 with Daniel Hope.

So it feels special and apt that my final live concert for its anniversary year should be in Berlin.

I’ll also be joined by violinist Elena Urioste, who recorded The New Four Seasons, released earlier this year.

I hope to see some of you there.

Max

Repertoire

Infra for Strings
Recomposed – Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

Tickets are on sale now, get your tickets here.

Barbican dates just announced

Max performs two special shows exploring ambient music through the orchestra, including pieces never performed before in the UK.

Exploring the idea of the orchestra as a medium for ambient music, rather than electronic instruments, Max has selected pieces that create space to reflect on ideas and feelings. It’s this intersection between the music and the listeners’ biographies that Max is interested in – the way a musical performance becomes conversational. 

The repertoire features six pieces of live music, three being UK premieres – Exiles, Opus 2020, and Testament. Max Richter will be joined by a specially expanded line-up of 12 Ensemble – who’ve previously performed with him at 2018’s Sounds and Visions weekend, alongside Soprano Grace Davidson.

Repertoire

Testament (UK premiere) 

The Waves

‘Dream 19’ from SLEEP

—-

Opus 2020 (UK premiere)

Arbenita

Exiles (UK Premiere)

Tickets go on general sale 10am Friday 22nd July, get your tickets here.

The New Four Seasons: release date and exclusive live performance

A decade on from the release of his mesmerising Recomposed album, Max has returned to the sound world of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in The New Four Seasons.

Recorded with violinist Elena Urioste and the musicians of Chineke! Orchestra, this new recording sees Max create a reworked version of his Recomposed score for period instruments –using gut strings and vintage synthesisers to create a “grittier, more punk rock sound”.

The new album will be released by Deutsche Grammophon on 10th June 2022; listen to singles ‘Spring 1’ and ‘Autumn 3’ now.

Max will perform Recomposed with Chineke! Orchestra at Chelsea Hospital as part of Live at Chelsea on 16th June 2022. This is the only chance to see Max performing the work in the UK this year. Buy tickets here.

Having performed Recomposed live many times in the last decade, Max was inspired to create a special rendition of the work on period instruments to take “a new trip through the text using Vivaldi’s own colours”. The New Four Seasons applies a Baroque palette to the score in which he transforms or subverts fragments from the original four violin concertos; spinning them into different shapes and colours and placing them in different orchestral settings. He has revisited the electronics too – opting for Moog synths from the 70s –“the equivalent of the Stradivarius”. Asked about the difference in sound between modern and period strings, he laughs: “I heard someone say it’s the difference between smooth peanut butter and crunchy peanut butter, which encapsulates it really well!”

At this concert, Max will also perform VOICES. Created in collaboration with artist Yulia Mahr and narrated by Imtiaz Dharker, the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights in dozens of languages is read over a radically reimagined “negative orchestra” heavy on basses and cellos, a musical metaphor of the world turning upside down.

Performers
Max Richter
Matthew Lynch, conductor, VOICES
Laura Ayoub, violin
Imtiaz Dharker, narrator
Grace Davidson, soprano
Chineke! Voices
Chineke! Orchestra

NEW MAX RICHTER UK & EUROPEAN LIVE DATES

  • REFLEKTOR festival co-curated with Yulia Mahr 
  • A Global live stream of 8.5 hour SLEEP
  • Welsh & German premiere of VOICES: a soundtrack to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Following Max Richter’s return to the stage in London for a sold out performance of VOICES at Crystal Palace Bowl, comes a festival co-curation and a series of performances featuring a range of projects from his pioneering catalogue.

These live dates follow a busy Spring/Summer, which has already included releasing the albums VOICES 2 and EXILES… with more projects to follow before the end of the year.

REFLEKTOR 2021
Max Richter and Yulia Mahr are thrilled to announce the programme for their latest festival bill.  Following in the footsteps of previous curators such as The National’s Bryce Dessner and Nils Frahm, the musician and multidisciplinary artist have selected a range of acts from around the world to join them in Hamburg from October 6th-10th. 

The event takes place in the glorious Elbphilharmonie concert halls, and will feature performances from Max, a new installation by Yulia Mahr, plus Jlin, Portico Quartet, Sarah Davachi, Shida Shahabi, Daniel Brandt, Starry Sky Cycle, Julius Eastman, Kali Malone, Pamela Z, Jason Moran & Christian McBride, and the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/festivals/reflektor-max-richter/692 

SLEEP LIVE STREAM
Fans around the world are invited to lay back and experience SLEEP together when Max performs the piece live overnight in Hamburg on October 6th. Tickets for this special online audio/visual stream go on sale on September 20th. https://www.elbphilharmonie.de/en/whats-on/live-stream-max-richter-sleep/16987

WELSH VOICES PREMIERE WITH BRIAN ENO AND KELSEY LU
VOICES will be part of the aptly-named Voices Festival in Cardiff on November 4th. The event takes place at the Wales Millennium Centre, and alongside the first UK performance outside of London, will be a special reading from Brian Eno and a performance by the mesmeric singer & cellist Kelsey Lu. Sinfonia Cymru, the UK’s leading under-30s orchestra, will perform VOICES with a special narrator to be announced. https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/festival-of-voice

FULL LIST OF LIVE DATES 
September 
20th – Roma Europa Festival – Blue Notebooks & Recomposed (Tickets)

October 
3rd – Berlin Konzerthaus – Infra & The Leftovers (Tickets)
6th – Hamburg Elbphilharmonie – Sleep (Tickets)
8th – Hamburg Elbphilharmonie – Recomposed  (Tickets)
9th – Hamburg Elbphilharmonie – Infra for Strings  (Tickets)
10th – Hamburg Elbphilharmonie – Infra & Voices   (Tickets)

November 
4th – Cardiff Festival of Voices, Wales Millennium Centre – Infra & Voices (Tickets)

Official Music Video: ‘Flowers of Herself’ by Max Richter

Studio Richter Mahr is thrilled to reveal the new video for ‘Flowers of Herself’ from Max’s new album EXILES.

To mark the release of Max Richter’s latest album EXILES, the celebrated composer and “musician of the moment” (Financial Times) is releasing a new music video for the opening track ‘Flowers of Herself’. Originally written for the critically-acclaimed Virginia Woolf-inspired ballet Woolf Works (Wayne McGregor’s ballet triptych created for The Royal Ballet in 2015), this rhythmically complex piece was heard earlier this year soundtracking  Fendi’s spring/summer 2021 fashion show in Paris, with Kate Moss, Demi Moore, Naomi Campbell and Cara Delevingne among the supermodels on the runway – watch HERE.

‘Flowers of Herself’ soundtracks the opening 5 pages from Virginia Woolf’s 1925 opus Mrs Dalloway.  Max Richter said, “‘Flowers of Herself’ is about the energy of going through a bustling city. The piece has this perpetual motion a little bit like if you’re walking down the street, you’ll see a bus then you’ll see another bus in a different space so there’s a shifting of perspective. ‘Flowers for Herself’ is a celebration of London, the orchestra emulates a busy, vibrant city, fuelled by excitement and pace.”

Watch Max talk about the track

For the video, Studio Richter Mahr challenged three young filmmakers to follow in Mrs Dalloway’s footsteps across London to ‘buy the flowers herself’ from Westminster across St James’s Park and onto Bond Street. Samuel Recko shot London streets in Super-8 on a skateboard, Annick Wolfers paints the city as colourful and ethereal and Sebastien Rabas takes a documentary style approach in black and white. Illustrator Sabina Dallu contributed additional animations.

Flowers of Herself, composed for large orchestra with electronics, is featured alongside expanded versions of other beloved Richter tracks: ‘The Haunted Ocean’ from Waltz with Bashir; ‘Infra 5’ from Infra; ‘On the Nature of Daylight’ from The Blue Notebooks; and ‘Sunlight’ from Songs from Before – an album which David Bowie described as having “the power to produce tears when listened to in the right setting”.

Central to the new album is the title track, Exiles – a world premiere recording of Richter’s 33-minute work composed for Nederlands Dans Theater and choreographers Sol León and Paul Lightfoot. Profoundly moved by the tragedy of the migrant crisis, Richter explains the inspiration for the piece: Reflecting on contemporary society, I decided to make a work on the universal subject of journeys. Many of us are lucky enough to be able to influence where we are going, but for an increasing number there are very few choices: the physical journey is a necessity in order for the journey forward through time to continue at all.”

The album was recorded in Tallinn with conductor Kristjan Järvi and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic – an orchestra that prides itself on fostering cross-border unity and artistic innovation.

EXILES is out now on Deutsche Grammophon – listen HERE

Credits

Directed by Studio Richter Mahr
Edited by Matthias Maercks
Produced by Sean Adams
Animated text by Sabina Dallu https://www.sabinadallu.com

Filmed by 
Samuel Recko https://vimeo.com/staygoldpictures
Annick Wolfers https://annickwolfers.com
Sebastien Rabas https://www.sebastienrabas.com

Music by Max Richter
Conducted by Kristjan Järvi
Performed by Baltic Sea Philharmonic
Record label Deutsche Grammophon

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