With the release of "Tapestry," Michael Hoppe has once again bestowed upon the world a recording of stunning beauty and incredible emotional depth. Hoppe has been one of my very favorite artists since I first discovered his music in 1998, and he seems to just keep getting better with each new release. Hoppe has created a trademark of sorts by including photos taken by his grandfather, E.O. Hoppe, to illustrate the music. This time, in addition to the photos in the twenty-page booklet, there are poems written for each piece by Therese Tappouni AND a video short film, Nous Deux Encore, which Hoppe scored. The British-born and Grammy-nominated Hoppe has released at least seventeen other albums over the past twenty or so years and is one of the most well-respected artists recording today. Several of his earlier albums were recorded with other artists including Tim Wheater (flute), Martin Tillman (cello), and Joe Powers (harmonica), and he has also collaborated on spoken-word albums with artists such as Michael York and Tim Wheater. Over the past several years, Hoppe has realized a life-long dream by recording several of his compositions with The Prague Symphony. While Hoppe's music is very calming and soothing, it is much too nuanced and evocative to relegate to background music. Although I have listened to "Tapestry" at least ten times, I keep pausing while writing about it to drink in the beauty of the music.
"Tapestry" begins with the sweeping "Prairie Moon," a piece we were given a sneak-preview to on last year's Nostalgie. This time it is fully realized by The Prague Symphony, painting landscapes of gently blowing grasses, endless skies, and nostalgia for a simpler life. Violinist Alyssa Park appears on three tracks, the first of which is "Sanctuary." With Hoppe's ethereal keyboard washes behind the soulful violin, peaceful warmth envelops the listener. "Maxie's Theme from Nous Deux Encore" features Mitsuki Dazai on koto. Oboe and guitar create an unusual but spellbinding trio. Strings are added, but the koto carries the enchanting melody from start to finish. "Moonflower," for piano and keyboard, is simply gorgeous in its elegant simplicity. "In Paradisum" is the only vocal piece, and features contralto AnDee Sanchez, whose graceful voice reaches right into your soul. "Impromptu" is the first of three piano solos, all of which are perfect in their simplest form. I love all twelve tracks on this album, but I think "Tears and Roses" is my favorite. It also appeared on Nostaglie, but this time it's a soulful duet for violin (Alyssa Park) and guitar. Joe Powers makes another appearance on "Embers," again demonstrating that the harmonica can be so much more than a campfire instrument. "Pastoral" is a shimmering symphonic masterpiece presented (this time!) on keyboards. Reflective and oh so peaceful, it makes me wonder why Michael Hoppe isn't a household name. "Tapestry" closes with the solo piano "Grace" - tender, honest, and gently embracing.

从10月3日开始，你将可以在“Living Room Songs”网站上，每天免费下载到Ólafur Arnalds当天在自己雷克雅未克公寓客厅中创作的一首歌曲，也可以及时观看演奏视频。Living Room Songs计划总共包含7首歌曲，除了网络免费下载以外，在今年也会发行实体的CD/LP和高质量数字音乐等多种格式。
事实上，Ólafur Arnalds早在09年4月就做过类似的事情。那时他推出了“Found Songs”计划，在一周的时间内，每天推出一首歌歌曲的即时创作，并在twitter上发布免费下载，还邀请网友给每首歌进行插画创作。最终全世界有超过10万网友下载了他的歌曲，也为后来的实体专辑《Found Songs》打下了很好的基础。
这次的“Living Room Songs”计划，则在“Found Songs”的基础上，加入了客厅创作的概念，并且引入了影像的记录。减少了和歌迷之前的隔阂感，少了一些神秘，多了几分互动。

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Max Richter出生于德国，幼年时移居英国。并在爱丁堡的皇家音乐学院接受了传统音乐教育。成年后的经历使他成为一位出色的钢琴家和作曲家。并一直致力于前卫的试验型音乐。将电子与环境音乐结合再融入古典音乐进行创作。热衷于将不同类型的音乐交汇互通。

Written and recorded by Daigo Hanada
Mastered by Emil Thomsen (ET Mastering)
Artwork by Kevin Townsend / Layout by Nicolas Hyatt

The 15th anniversary reissue of Max Richter’s highly cherished sophomore album expanded with a bonus disc including an orchestral version of ‘On The Nature of Daylight’ and a previously unreleased 2018 take on ‘Vladimir’s Blues’, plus an elegantly rude remix of the same track by Jlin, and a swooning, technoid Konx-Om-Pax rework of ‘Iconography’
"The Blue Notebooks was originally composed in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Richter has described it as "a protest album about Iraq, a mediation on violence – both the violence that I had personally experienced around me as a child and the violence of war, at the utter futility of so much armed conflict." The album was recorded about a week after mass protests against the war. It features readings from Franz Kafka's The Blue Octavo Notebooks and Czesław Miłosz's Hymn of the Pearl and Unattainable Earth. Both readings are by the British actress Tilda Swinton."
Here’s our original review from 2004:
"Max Richter's 'The Blue Notebooks' is the 4th release on FatCat's 130701 imprint, an outlet for more orchestrated, instrumental material. 'The Blue Notebooks' is Max Richter's second solo album, a distinctive and adventurous work that is beautifully recorded and cinematic in scope. Opening with a text from Franz Kafka over a sparse piano melody, the album moves through gorgeous, heart-wrenching string swells of 'On The Nature Of Daylight' through to sparse but lyrical piano pieces; hazy, swirling atmospherics, avalanche pulse-beats and partially occluded melodies that recall Aphex Twin's SAWII; and to reverberant organ / choir recordings.
Utilising piano, cello, violin and viola, alongside electronic beats (made using a variety of antique electronics and Reaktor), spoken word passages and the occasional field recording, other sounds were generated via old guitar pedals and vocoders. Life affirming music."

The brand new album from Max Richter DGs best-selling artist/composer with music crafted from 2015s outstanding ballet production Woolf Works, a critically-acclaimed ballet triptych by choreographer Wayne McGregor, inspired by the life and works of English novelist Virginia Woolf.
Featuring powerful, compelling, emotional music, encompassing electronic textures and soundscapes, as well as orchestral episodes.
Following the success of SLEEP, this album showcases different sides of Max Richters vast palette of sounds, including upbeat, Arpeggiator pieces
Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works shows Maxs passion for both lavish string and piano melodies, but also his virtuoso electronic side.
The first track on the album features spoken words by Virginia Woolf herself, reading the essay Craftsmanship from a BBC recording of 1937.
The original ballet was met with outstanding critical acclaim on its premiere in 2015, winning the Critics Circle Award for Best Classical Choreography and the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production.
The Observer described it as a compellingly moving experience; for The Independent it glows with ambition... a brave, thoughtful work; The Guardian called it a haunting meditation on memory, madness and time and lavishly atmospheric score.
Each of the three acts springs from one of Woolfs landmark novels: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves enmeshed with elements from her letters, essays and diaries.
What a brilliant creative human being Virginia Woolf was. Its been extraordinary to have the chance to be submerged in the matters that troubled her, the questions she wrestled with and the visionary quality of the answers she discovered Max Richter

Review by Blair Sanderson
Antonio Vivaldi's Le Quattro Stagioni is one of the most beloved works in Baroque music, and even the most casual listener can recognize certain passages of "Spring" or "Winter" from frequent use in television commercials and films. Yet if these concertos have grown a little too familiar to experienced classical fans, Max Richter has disassembled them and fashioned a new composition from the deconstructed pieces. Using post-minimalist procedures to extract fertile fragments and reshape the materials into new music, Richter has created an album that speaks to a generation familiar with remixes, sampling, and sound collages, though his method transcends the manipulation of prerecorded music. Richter has actually rescored the Four Seasons and given the movements of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter thorough makeovers that vary substantially from the originals. The new material is suggestive of a dream state, where drifting phrases and recombined textures blur into walls of sound, only to re-emerge with stark clarity and poignant immediacy. Violinist Daniel Hope is the brilliant soloist in these freshly elaborated pieces, and the Konzerthaus Kammerorchester Berlin is conducted with control and assurance by André de Ridder, so Richter's carefully calculated effects are handled with precision and subtlety. Deutsche Grammophon's stellar reproduction captures the music with great depth, breadth, and spaciousness, so everything that Richter and de Ridder intended to be heard comes across.