Classical composer Max Richter, known for HBO’s The Leftovers, loves sleeping so much that he created an 8-hour album designed to help listeners get some shut-eye. I tried to listen to it just now, but honestly, it’s early and I’m very tired, and that’s kind of a lot to ask.
“Sleeping and being asleep is one of my favorite activities,” Richter told NPR. I’m really not sure if anything has ever resonated with me more. In his liner notes, the composer wrote:
We spend more time sleeping than we do anything else — in the average life it amounts to several decades. What a miraculous part of our lives, this state of suspended animation existing between being and non-being (and for me personally, where all my work is actually done). What happens to music here? Are there ways in which music and consciousness can interact other than in a wakeful state? Can music function as a truly shared creative space?
According to the Washington Post, Richter consulted with neurological experts to learn how to encourage slow-wave (AKA deep, pre-rapid eye movement) sleep in listeners. And here’s the best part: when Richter and his ensemble perform the album in Berlin this fall, they will play straight from midnight until 8 AM to an audience reclining in “four or five hundred beds.”
The album is out today, with a condensed one-hour version available on Spotify. Check out the trailer, below:
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Image via USA/Marie Antoinette.