Late Night Synths And Strings

The Malady Of Elegance

Threnody

vånda - jpg f/w 2007 (v1)

The Present transports you into the heart of 2025 — a city humming with technology, possibilities, and fleeting moments. This improvised solo‑piano piece reflects the pulse of modern life: overlapping voices, illuminated screens, the thrill of movement and the pause of awareness.

Designed for visual media, this soundscape balances energy and space — the rhythm of today, the breath of the moment. Imagine a metropolis at dusk, lights in motion, future and familiar colliding.

The Present

(Instrumental) Late Night Closure

Simple

Le Brasier De Tristesse

Hymn to the Immortal Wind

Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn (Remastered)

Originally conceived as a Royal Ballet-commissioned collaboration between composer Max Richter, choreographer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie, Max Richter’s gorgeous score to ‘infra’ is deservedly given life of its own in this album-length release from FatCat’s instrumental/orchestral imprint 130701 Records.

The initial setting for ‘infra’ was as a ballet - written in autumn 2008 and premiered in November of the same year at The Royal Opera House in London – although here Richter’s score is given the full scope of a standalone new album. Expanded and extended from the original piece, ‘infra’ comprises music written for piano, electronics and string quintet, including the full performance score as well as material that has subsequently developed from the construction of the album – more a continued reference to the ballet than as a “studio album” in the strictest sense. The composition resonates with Max’s characteristic musical voice – majestic, involved textures; fluent and sweeping melodies; an enigmatic and inherently intellectual understanding of harmonic complexities that compels and mesmerizes.

Richter’s work on the ballet came initially from McGregor’s invitiation, a request for 25 minutes of music for his piece, inspired by T.S. Elliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ and named after the Latin term for ‘below’. This eventually became more collaborative as the project developed – Wayne would ask for Max to extend or alter certain passages of music in accordance with his own amendments to his choreography and concept, whilst logging the whole process for a BBC documentary (broadcast, along with the ballet in full, on BBC2 in November 2008). The dance performance was backed with digital images created by Julian Opie – observational scenes of street life, haunting and curiously balletic despite being of the everyday – and Max’s score is an appropriately close reference to the traveling theme:

“I started thinking about making a piece on the theme of journeys. Like a road movie. Or a traveler’s notebook. Or like the second unit in a film - when the scene has been played, and the image cuts away to the landscape going by. This started me thinking about Schubert's devastating and haunting "Winterreise" (Winter Journey), so I used some melodic material from Schubert as a found object in parts of my new piece.“

The recording of ‘infra’ took place in one day at London’s AIR Studios – recorded onto 2” tape, engineered by Nick Wollage and overseen by Max - before a return to the mixing studio (Max’s StudioKino and Trixx in Berlin) for Max’s typically intricate and lengthy process of crafting completed pieces from the recordings.

Infra

Infra 3

The Debut Album "Nothing Is Still", out now on Ninja Tune.
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Nothing Is Still

Movements (Chapter III)

Erased Tapes Collection V

String Quartet No. 2: III (Live at the Ancienne Belgique)

Le Brasier De Tristesse

Sylvain Chauveau

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