| Max Richter | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1966, Germany |
| Occupations | Composer, pianist, producer |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Labels | Fat Cat Records |
| Website | maxrichtermusic.com |
Max Richter (born 1966) is a German-born British composer.
Contents |
Richter studied composition and piano at University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Music and with Luciano Berio in Florence.[1] After finishing his studies, Richter co-founded the contemporary classical ensemble Piano Circus.[2] He stayed with the group for ten years, commissioning and performing works by Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe and Steve Reich. The ensemble was signed to Decca/Argo, producing five albums. In 1996, Max collaborated with Future Sound of London on their album Dead Cities, beginning as a pianist, but ultimately working on several tracks, as well as co-writing one track (titled "Max"). Richter subsequently worked with the band over a period of two years, also contributing to the albums The Isness and The Peppermint Tree and Seeds of Superconsciousness. In 2000, Richter worked with Mercury Prize winner Roni Size on the Reprazent album In the Mode. Richter produced Vashti Bunyan's album Lookaftering (2005)[3] and Kelli Ali's album Rocking Horse in 2008.[4]
In 2002, Richter released his solo debut Memoryhouse, an experimental album of “documentary music” recorded with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, which explores real and imaginary stories and histories.[5] It combines ambient sounds, voices, and poetry readings. The album went out of print several years later, but was re-released in 2009. Four tracks (“Europe, After the Rain”, “The Twins (Prague)”, “Fragment“, and “Embers”) were used in the six-part 2005 BBC documentary Auschwitz: The Nazis and the Final Solution produced by Laurence Rees.[6] On his second album, The Blue Notebooks (2004), actress Tilda Swinton reads from Kafka’s Blue Octavo and other "shadow journals".[7] Songs from Before (2006) features Robert Wyatt reading texts by Haruki Murakami.[8] Richter released his fourth solo album 24 Postcards in Full Colour, a collection of 24 classically-composed miniatures for ringtones, in 2008.[9] The pieces are a series of variations on the basic material, scored for strings, piano and electronics. Richter's latest album, Infra, is an extension of his 25-minute score for a ballet choreographed by Wayne McGregor which was staged at the Royal Opera House.[10] Infra is composed of music written for piano, electronics and string quintet, the full performance score, as well as material that subsequently developed from the construction of the album.[11]
Richter has composed numerous film soundtracks. He executed the score to Ari Folman’s Golden Globe-winning film Waltz with Bashir in 2007,[12] supplanting the standard orchestral soundtrack with synth-based sounds. Richter wrote the music for Feo Aladag's film Die Fremde (with additional music by Stéphane Moucha).[13] In 2010, Dinah Washington's "This Bitter Earth" was remixed with Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight" for the Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island.[14] In July 2010, "On The Nature Of Daylight" and "Vladimir's Blues" featured throughout the BBC Two two-part drama Dive, which was co-written by Bafta award winning Dominic Savage and Simon Stevens. Richter also wrote the soundtrack to Peter Richardson’s documentary, How to die in Oregon,[15]and the score to Les Impardonnables (2011) directed by André Téchiné.[16] Films featuring Max's music which go on release in 2011 include French drama Elle s’appelait Sarah by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, and David MacKenzie's romantic thriller Perfect Sense. Richter is currently composing the score to Ari Folman’s new film The Congress which is set for release in 2012-13. Max Richter also composed music for the independent feature film, Henry May Long, starring Randy Sharp and Brian Barnhart, back in 2008.
Richter wrote the score to Infra as part of a Royal Ballet-commissioned collaboration with dancer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie. The production was staged at the Royal Opera House in London in 2008. In 2010, Richter's soundscape The Anthropocine formed part of Darren Almond’s film installation at the White Cube gallery in London.