»From Sleep« is Max Richter’s one-hour version of the eight-hour original composition »Sleep«. The English composer has called this piece of music his »personal lullaby for a hectic world«. These shorter pieces are actually meant for attentive listening, while the long version was created for listening while you’re sleeping. »From Sleep« is giving us seven insights into the long composition, recorded together with two violins and two celli from the American Contemporary Music Ensemble and the soprano singer Grace Davidson, while Max Richter is playing the piano, the synthesizer and the organ. The tracks, which are between five and twelve minutes long, meander around in the most relaxed manner, hardly move at all and therefore have a very hypnotizing and calming effect. By using soft and hollow echo chambers, sustained tones and musical changes in super slow motion, these seven neo-classic-tracks sound like acoustic ambient loops performed in real time. Max Richter himself has called this collection a »pause button for everyday life«. And it really works wonderfully, especially due to the use of deep bass sounds supporting the deep sleep phase and due to mesmerizing, melodic repetitions.
Ayako Shinozaki
Music Now For Harp
WeWantSounds