Product Description Acclaimed British composer Max Richter has made history with a ground-breaking piece of work: his new work, "SLEEP," is an eight-hour lullaby. An exploration of music, consciousness and human connectivity, the work is intended to be listened to while sleeping. The landmark work is played on piano, strings, with subtle electronic touches and vocals - but no words. Previously released digitally, the full eight-hour worked is released on CD and high definition Blu-Ray audio. Review As a composer, all my works are experiments: either they are about something, or the piece itself is the working out of a musical subject,an attempt at a solution to a musical question.The question in this work is How can the sleeping mind and amusical work interact, and how will this sleeping interaction manifestitself in the listener s experience of the music?My fascination with the unconscious and / or sleeping part of our livesis longstanding. I see it as a resource for creative ideas, and as anautonomous cognitive space, relatively inaccessible to our consciousmind (as described, for example the work of Jung, or more recently inDavid Eagleman s Incognito), a sort of undiscovered country that livesinside each one of us.Discovery takes time. In this case the equivalent of a night s rest - 8hours or so. This extended performance duration connects SLEEPwith a number of strands in recent gallery work (e.g. the Durationalmovement in art) as well as pointing back to some earlier art musicantecedents...Musical sources begin with Bach s Goldberg Variations BWV988.Allegedly written to be played as a sort of expensive lullaby for aninsomniac nobleman, they are an early example of music and sleepexplicitly being brought into a functional relationship, though ofcourse the informal evocation of night and sleep is present in musicfrom the earliest written sources, for example the latin chant Te Lucisante Terminum (Before the ending of daylight).Moving on we come to Mahler s Nachtmusik I and II, the ghost-likemovements either side of the central movement of the enigmaticseventh Symphony. Mahler s vision is distinctly within the GermanRomantic tradition here, with it s emphasis on the intense articulationof individual experience. Arguably sleep is the most individualexperience of all.Fast forward to the 1960s we come to the extended duration works ofLa Monte Young, Terry Riley and Morton Feldman, the contemplativespace that is Stockhausen s Stimmung, and the ecstatic pulsations of theearly Pink Floyd, among others. These works close the aesthetic gapbetween the physical experience of the music and it s content - thesound is the text. This boundary or overlap between the musical textand it s sonic presentation is something I am exploring in my ownwork, and I see it as in some way mirroring the unconscious /conscious mind dualism.Another way to shine a light onto this question is via contemporaryneuroscience, and, therefore I am in dialogue with David Eagleman,director of the Laboratory for Perception and Action at Baylor Collegeand author of numerous scientific works on our mental processes. Thisis directly affecting the development of the musical work, for exampleon the development of structural aspects of the material that interlockwith the cyclical nature of sleep itself. --Max Richter December 2014
D**S
TIPS FOR LISTENING
Sleep is a melodic lulaby that entrances the listener. There are a few tips for listening that I wish someone would have told me... Go ahead and buy the $$ 8 cd + Blu-Ray set. I first purchased the digital copy and for some reason it didn't transfer well when they made it digital. There are a lot of complaints listed in all digital music services reviews of this. I know cuz I checked them out after I heard all the distortion. It was full of clicks and so much bass that when I set my stereo on the night setting and turned the dynamic bass off, it was still too much bass. Even on smaller speakers with no sub-woofer it was distorted. I deleted it from my library, got a refund and bought the CD'S. The difference was immediately noticeable... no distortion at all. That being said, there is still a lot of bass but at least it's not messed up. This work is great to listen to aggressively, passively and even sleeping. For me, each has its own setting because of the extreme bass. If I'm listening while working or moving around my usual stereo setting are ok. Passively, like I'm listening now, or when I'm coloring (yes 49 year old men still color) has a setting with the bass and volume reduced. For me, my sleep was interrupted by some of this music. I am a light sleeper and the vocals and sometimes the bass wake me up so, I go through a smaller sound system thus reducing the bass. I set the volume where I can barely hear it when it starts and it lulls me to sleep perfectly. Another great work of his that it's worth buying the extra stuff on is Re-composed. The DVD that comes with it is wonderful and everyone I show it to falls in love. Max has evolved into quite the mad scientist of classical music taking it places like sleeping, ringtones and Tilda Swinton while still giving us masterpieces like On The Nature Of Daylight and Andras. I would love to see him work with Johann Johannsson or Thom Yorke but I'm sure what ever he does I will savour every moment.
J**R
A massive work from the great Max Richter
I became interested in Max Richter after hearing one of his songs from his Blue Notebooks album on a streaming service. He also does much of the music for the HBO series The Leftovers. This album is really amazing. Quiet, peaceful, with the intention of reflecting an 8 hour sleep cycle. I haven't listened to every bit of it, but I have listened to most of it. I have my Amazon Echo play the first 1-2 hours of this album while I'm trying to fall asleep and it really works for me. Playing it a little louder, it also works fairly well as somewhat somber background music for dinner parties. It's also interesting enough to listen to attentively while awake either for meditation or quiet reflection. A great ambient album.
C**S
All the same--sounds great to me
I have the remixes as well as the "from Sleep" release. I am hugely into ambient musics, though for sleep, I prefer white noise or some type of droning repetitiveness, This is actually just monotonous enough to do the trick, however, I agree--when using to sleep have the volume set to just audible, otherwise you will probably pay more attention to the music than you will about falling asleep. You have to kind of treat it as though it were your own sub-conscious. Nevertheless, having it playing in the background during the day will certainly help to de-stress you. That said, it's a phenomenal piece of work and I can appreciate the time it took to create such a seamless and lengthy recording.By the way, I really don't notice the spaces/gaps between the songs. Perhaps it is just the way my media player reads the data. I use the Music Bee media player and if you haven't tried it you should. All the same--sounds great to me.
E**N
expensive investment but worth it
I balked at the idea of spending about 50 bucks on a CD of music but this is worth it (note, the cds come in a box in paper sleeves, not plastic cases, which I prefer because it's less bulky/wasteful). People who don't like Richter's minimalism won't think this album is worth it because the tracks do sound a bit repetitive (but they aren't, as is the point of minimalism). I think it is great music to listen to while working (because it is calming and not distracting) or trying to fall asleep (no brainer). I chose this over the abbreviated/cheaper Sleep album because that one didn't have some of my favorite tracks (sublunar, space waves, etc).
B**Y
It's really a wonderful album. I always liked Richter's repetitive
I haven't fallen asleep with it, but that's mostly because my ears eventually get bothered by having headphones in for hours. It's really a wonderful album. I always liked Richter's repetitive, minimalist style and he executes it well with Sleep. Very calming and helps me think when I've got a lot of things to process.
G**Y
Scarily effective
The dreams you have may be a bit heavy. Lovely, warm recording that does help sleep. It's a long, melancholy piece using minor keys that may make your dreams either sad or slow, long, and intense. Someday I'll listen to two or three pieces per day during daylight to discover the mysteries of the deep sleep this piece fosters.
Z**Z
Perfect sleeping music for overnight flights
We have used this music to help drown out noise and help us sleep on two overnight flights. It is great -- very soothing!I originally purchased this via iTunes because it was much cheaper but that version has noise issues. (Which were mentioned in the user reviews but I thought for sure the issues would have been fixed by the time I bought it!)
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