Album Review: Max Richter - Sleep
“Who is playing the ‘massage music?’”
This is what one of my co-workers asked when they heard the
faint sounds of Sleep, the new 8 hour song cycle from Max Richter coming
from my cubicle in the newsroom. Previously, my editor had referred to ambient
droning that I was listening to as Yanni.
So, perhaps the office is not the best place to listen to 8
hours of music that you aren’t even supposed to listen to while you are awake.
When I first heard about Sleep, I thought it was both
an interesting concept, as well as peak caucasity. I mean, an entire sequence
of music, 8 hours in duration, intended to be consumed while you are asleep?
When would you even have the time to listen to it while you
were awake?
Right now I am at my other job, at the bookstore, and I have
been playing it over the store’s sound system for nearly two hours. I’m waiting
for someone to complain--nobody has said anything yet.
Earlier, I was listening to it on my headphones while
watching my rabbit eat hay.
Needless to say, it turns every moment of your life into
something incredibly pensive, introspective, and somber--whether you want it to
or not.
Sleep is organized in three or four motifs, and
throughout the course of the 8 hour running time (31 tracks that are almost all
seamless) it switches back and forth between those musical ideas. Two of which
are the most listenable and accessible--yes, contrary to how intimidating
listening to 8 hours of music is, this is an accessible listen, for the most
part.
The third motif is not as palatable, relying heavily on the
affected, ethereal vocals of Grace Davidson, as well as synthesizer work that
is very reminiscent of late 80s and early 90s “new age” music. So yes, we do
dabble into some unfortunate Yanni-esq territory.
The fourth drifts into a slow, codeine drip, drone,
prompting someone in the bookstore to ask if they were at a spa; then later
commenting, “I feel like this is doing something weird to me.”
Again...you’re meant to be asleep when you are listening to
this.
The two most effective motifs are somber and contemplative,
and there are things about them that remind me to Clint Mansell’s score to the
film The Fountain, which is maybe why I was so willing to dive head
first into this, breaking the rules, and listening to it while I am wide awake,
trying to work or function as an adult.
I also feel like I may have done this wrong.
It turns out there is a companion album, running one hour in
duration, called From Sleep. I thought it was a condensed version of
this, like a “best” of the 8 hour composition, but there is a piece, or idea,
that is not shared between the two in the form of “Dream 13,” which, if
anything, is the most uplifting (and also bittersweet) out of the whole lot,
and could be considered a single.
But again, the idea of pulling a single from an 8 hour song
cycle…...that’s like side one, track one of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, or something ridiculous like that.
The implication of the hour long version of the record is
that you’ll listen to it while you are awake. So as I sit and write this,
listening to a violin solo performing the second of the three motifs on the
piece “Constellation 1,” I am left wondering if I splurged too quickly on the
$35 download, thinking, “it’s only $35 more for EIGHT WHOLE HOURS OF THIS. Why
would I ever buy only an hour’s worth?”
Sleep is haunting. It has a fragile, quiet beauty to
it. It’s stark and evocative, and I have to wonder that if you use it the way
it’s intended, what kind of dreams it creates for you, if any. However, if you
listen to this while awake, you notice how repetitive it is as it segues
through each piece-- but again, maybe that’s the point. Maybe the point is that
that’s how it works, it weaves its way slowly and deliberately through the
musical ideas and motifs while seeking to comfort you and lull you into a night
of sleep.
Hunkering down and making your way through all 8 hours of
this is a bit of a feat, similar to reading Infinite Jest. Whether you
are interested in the experimental aspect of it or even in “modern classical”
music, it’s worth hearing at least once.
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