Max Richter - The Blue Notebooks

 Released in 2004, The Blue Notebooks, Richter's second modern-classical album, could be forgiven for being construed as a weak attempt at a concept album. Throughout the duration of the album, accompanied by a typewriter, Tilda Swinton is heard reading passages from Franz Kafka's The Blue Octavo Notebooks and some of Czeslaw Milosz's works. Tilda Swinton has a lovely voice, placed here amongst  religious and nostalgic instrumentation, further than this quality though I don't really think that her readings are supposed to grandly alter the way in which you experience the album. Instead they simply add another texture to the album which features only a piano, strings, an organ, a harp and a voice.

What distinguishes this album is the manner in which it melds Richter's influences together. Minimalism, electronic production and cinematic sound-scapes are all used to great effect with the resulting compositions  being filled with religious grandeur without ever resorting to grandiosity. Considering that Richter has collaborated with Roni Size, Future Sound Of London and Ridley Scott whilst also having studied at the Royal Academy under the Italian composer Luciano Berio and also spent the ten years before this album's release commissioning and playing the work of Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Briano Eno with his ensemble, Piano Circus, the ease with which he does so becomes understandable.

His restriction in his choice of instruments  is evidently derived from his roots in Minimalism, as is the monodic nature of the album. In fact, a large portion of the album consists of short two to three minute pieces such as "Vladimir's Blues" and "Written On The Sky" that feature either a solitary organ or piano. In contrast to these short sketches more than half of the album's fourty minute run-time is dominated by only three pieces: "On The Nature of Daylight", "The Shadow Journal" and "The Trees". The first of these tracks is probably my favourite on the album. "On The Nature Of Daylight" grows from a base of a single cello, gradually each new layer of strings is added so that the track coalesces into a delicately gripping whole. On "The Shadow Journal" Richter makes most use of his production skills. From the outset of the track there is reverberation applied to the harps so that they become almost indistinguishable from a synthesizer, later Richter introduces a cavernous bassline that feels like a quantised heartbeat. 

While the longer tracks dominate the album the shorter sketches are just as effective and melodically pleasant. Five of the album's tracks feature only a solitary piano or organ yet are still more than capable of great beauty and keeping with the contrastingly nostalgic and sanctified tone of the work. Through keeping each individual piece monodic and having each piece's narrative advance through simplistic harmonic progressions Richter unifies the album as a whole. The album is repetitive on a microcosmic level yet through small electronic flourishes Richter draws vast amounts out of his limited instruments and avoids the macroscopic stringency that afflicts some Minimalism.

This is music that feels like it was recorded in a cathedral and should be listened to in one.

If you like this:
Ryuichi Sakamoto - 1996 - http://www.discogs.com/Ryuichi-Sakamoto-1996/master/135235
Philip Glass - Koyaanisqatsi - http://www.discogs.com/Philip-Glass-Koyaanisqatsi/master/33014