Max Richter - Infra

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5...according to our Phil on Thu 15 Jul, 2010.

Max. The Max, The Maxxer, Max is back! With a brand new album on Fat Cat! Curb your excitement neo classical funsticks, the time is nigh to get all misery induced again with a new album from the lord of melancholy (I'm really trying to liven this up... is it working?). Infra is a collaboration with Wayne Macgregor and Julian Opie for The Royal Ballet from 2008. Anyone who knows me at all knows how obsessed I am with Max Richter. Pretty much everything he's done is a work of unparalleled genius with the possible exception of 24 postcards which is just good and not genius. I've heard Infra a few times and I can say he's back on form and if anything it's more like his earlier work. As ever you get the perfect blend of orchestral and electronics. The mood is sombre with the strings pulling at your heartstrings giving you goose pimples. In between all the emotive business you get some more experimental electronics which refreshing to hear from Max as it's kind of evolving his sound a bit more. The piano on Journey is the saddest thing I've heard in my life (reminds me a bit of a tune from the Goodbye Lenin soundtrack). Amazingly potent and powerful music which I genuinely can't recommend enough. Motherfucking awesome!

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‘Infra’, Max Richter’s beautiful collaboration with Wayne Macgregor and Julian Opie for The Royal Ballet, is accorded a full release in its own right.

· The initial setting for ‘Infra’ was as a dance performance, written in Autumn 2008 and premiered in November of the same year at The Royal Opera House in London. Expanded and extended from the original ballet piece, ‘Infra’ comprises music written for piano, electronics and string quintet, including the full performance score as well as material that has developed from the construction of the album.

· A 60 minute BBC documentary about the project, as well as a full performance, will shortly be available on DVD.

· A former member of contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus, commissioning and performing works by Arvo Part, Brian Eno, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, Max Richter was also pivotal in developing that group’s use of live sampling.

· Conversely, Max’s orchestrations have also graced records by Future Sound Of London and Roni Size and he also arranged and coproduced Vashti Bunyan’s ‘Lookaftering’.

· An active collaborator in other media, Max received The European Film Award in 2009 for his work on ‘Waltz With Bashir’, Ari Forman’s unique, award-winning animated documentary.

· Max’s composition ‘On The Nature Of Daylight’ was included in
Martin Scorsese’s ‘Shutter Island’ and forthcoming scores include
Benedek Fliegauf’s near future Dystopia ‘Womb’, as well as ‘From The Art Of Mirrors’, a film / music performance with hitherto unseen Super-8mm films by Derek Jarman.

Tracklisting:

Infra 1 * Journey 1 * Infra 2 * Infra 3 * Journey 2 *
Infra 4 * Journey 3 * Journey 4 * Journey 5 * Infra 5 *
Infra 6 * Infra 7 * Infra 8

5...according to kamikaze.

Although he's one of those fellas you hear about constantly, this is the first record I've actually picked up by him, and what a pleasant surprise it was. If you've not picked this one up yet, go get it, you're Infra treat, it's off the (Richter) scale, etc, etc, etc. Melancholy as a Monday morning, but holds a bucket-load of beauty unrivaled by pretty much anything else I've heard since Rachel's used to put a few more records out than they do these days. I'm absolutely rinsin' this record, a little concerned I'll wear it out if I don't stop soon, though no apparent danger of breaking the spell this album's taken on me. Glorious.

So, what do you think? Best reviewer each month gets £10 off their next order!