Max Richter : In A Landscape

Sadly there are few modern classical composers that can sustain a career that isn’t buoyed by film, television, and video game score work. The late Johann Johannsson was working towards that. The great Hans Zimmer is another, but he first established himself in film work. Danny Elfman pretty much sticks to film and TV, besides best-of tours showcasing his already established works as well as his band Oingo Boingo.

One composer that has made a career out of his original pieces while dipping into film and television commission work is Max Richter. His groundbreaking debut, 2002s Memoryhouse, was hailed as a modern masterpiece, while 2004s The Blue Notebooks solidified his reputation as one of the premier modern classical composers.

Whether its original pieces used in film(“On The Nature of Daylight” in Arrival) or score work for The Leftovers, Black Mirror, and Ad Astra, Max Richter makes compelling pieces that go straight for the head and heart.

Max Richter’s latest work, In A Landscape, revisits themes that Richter touched on with The Blue Notebooks. It’s another beautifully visceral and compelling work of music that sees Richter locking into truly emotionally engaging pieces that stand as monumental pieces of music.

Over the course of nearly an hour and twenty minutes and 19 pieces of music Richter builds captivating sounds with electronics, strings, and woodwinds. Everything flows beautifully together, and there are too many great works here to talk about them all. One of the many highlights is the brooding and melancholy “And Some Will Fall”, a piece that’s carried along by a gorgeous string section. It’s reminiscent of classic string quartets of Bach, while locking into the feel of Richter’s Sleep album.

There is also the quiet “Life Study” movements I-IX, a hushed series of pieces that feel like ambient works. They beg for quiet contemplation, or just to be heard after a long day. Closing piece “Movement, Before All The Flowers” has a mournful quality led by strings and piano, it feels like a proper finale to the journey this album takes us on.

Max Richter continues to establish himself as one of our greatest, modern living composers. In A Landscape is an absolute work of art not to be taken for granted.