MUSIC: Max Richter

The essense of wistful melancholy

I did a post a couple of weeks ago with a few songs with words that work for me while writing, but most of the time (if I have music at all) it’s either classical or soundtrack — and nowhere do those genres meet as majestically as in the work of Max Richter.

You may think you’ve never heard him, but you likely have: the heart-rending On The Nature of Daylight — second track on the beautiful 2004 album The Blue Notebooks — has become the film-scorer’s default pick for a certain kind of keeningly melancholic atmosphere, and his music has appeared in everything from Arrival to Black Mirror.

I first discovered him via the hugely under-rated show The Leftovers. At least, I thought that had been the first, until I realized On The Nature of Daylight was used in the movie Shutter Island. And The Face of An Angel. And even the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi. You see what I mean.

A few other examples are below, including a piece from the monumental work Sleep — an eight-hour album, designed to last the length of a night’s rest, and now available as an app for either promoting sleep or forming a background to meditation.

And finally there’s the whole of a live concert of his re-imagining of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Yeah I know that sounds like a terrible idea. But it’s Max Richter, so it’s not.

Max Richter - On the Nature of Daylight

Max Richter - Dream 13 (from Sleep)

Max Richter - The Departure (Extended)

Max Richter In Concert: Reimagining Vivaldi