Songs From Before (2006)

Beautifully recorded and cinematic in scope, this album carries a pensive, emotionally resonant tone. Punctuated by Robert Wyatts distinctive, understated readings of Haruki Murakamis text, the music evokes forgotten memories or lost histories, a series of bittersweet articulations that seem suspended somewhere between a dreamy sense of awe and melancholia. The title refers to the fact that, as well as this being a kind of specimen case of music written over a long period, the album carries other music inside it - with the sources ranging from music between 5 and 300 years old - either used as starting points for Maxs own writing, or submerged deep within. "...a stunning manifesto where the strings and Richter's piano pull one another between poles of regret and redemption" - Pitchfork.com; "Epic yet personal, "Songs From Before" is a joy that firmly cements Max Richter at the forefront of contemporary composition. Essential." - BOOMKAT; "Songs From Before is a deeply moving, near-sacred work." - XLR8R