Want to fall asleep?
Well, composer Max Richter wants you to, too.
That’s why the British melody chef’s cooked up a delicious eight hour long lullaby for our brains to digest until dream time arrives. It’s called “Sleep” – which at first made me sardonically think, “Yeah. Why confuse us by coming up with something innovative, right?” But then, when I gave the album a sample on Youtube, I realized two things: 1.) It definitely deserves its simple moniker. And 2.) I probably shouldn’t be listening to sublime mind effleurage of this genre at 6 in the morning. Not when I have a nine hour day of work on my feet ahead of me.
Yet… I can’t… stop… listening.
Chock full’a peaceful stringed instruments against a backdrop of pacifying piano pieces, it’s the ideal soundtrack to drift off to. And, while maybe you’ve gotten this with some of the other scores you’ve tried zonking out to, you’ve probably also had the non-pleasure of waking up an hour or two in – right when the album ended and your brain realized you were suddenly minus a melody. Not with “Sleep”. In this composition, Max’s tracks collectively add up to the same amount of time you’re meant to rest. So confident was he in his work, that he held a coma inducing concert for his new album. With strangers. All sleeping beside eachother.
Live music and humans dead to the world:
After listening to it myself, I have to admit – this series of ditties is actually fantastic on two levels. The first reason being the obvious (and why we’re all here); it’d make for a Grade A brain tranquilizer after those days that leave you feeling a bit too schizo to shut down on command. Aside from its snooze inducing qualities, however, I have to admit: the classical music element of it helps for waking activities, as well. Like, for instance, what I’m doing right now. Writing. While I was fearful at the start of this article that I might wake up three hours later with drool on the keyboard and face-typed gibberish all over the screen, I’ve gotta admit – I might’ve been wrong. Because, between the clean, intricate, melodies and the calming chords – listening to this stuff whilste creating’s been equally effective as others claim it is during dream time. Or, as this more-eloquent-than-I author puts it in his review:
This is music that might best be experienced in a flickering semi-conscious state, those parlous and fraught seconds in which a gaping void is glimpsed in tiny flashes before cognition vanishes without warning to be replaced by emptiness. Although Richter created Sleep so as to soundtrack the ideal period of rest, any live performance of it will doubtlessly be a richly immersive and moving experience.
Dude was definitely listening to the album while he was writing his review too. High five, homie.
So, if you’re feeling inspired (or just desperate on account’a insomnia), give Richter a listen this evening.
Heh.
Ironic his name’s Max Richter when the stuff he makes’s so tranquil, minimalist, and opposite of a seismic event.