Records of the Week

OFFICIAL SITE OF MAX RICHTER
MAX RICHTER ON MYSPACE
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As an accompaniment to Wayne McGregor’s modern ballet interpretation of T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland,” Max Richter laid the wistful groundwork for his newest masterpiece, Infra. And just as “The Wasteland” characterizes lonesome souls isolated in the modern world, unable to meaningfully communicate with each other, Infra skeptically illuminates emotions broadcast across unfathomable distances.  The score begins with a nautical ping, like a submarine’s radar sweep or Morse code blindly venturing into the deep.  Because Richter composed the album to accompany a dance performance, the message is only successful if the music evokes a kinetic response in the listener–the cold ambient, mafioso strings and reverberating bell tones of the album will make you sway like kelp anchored to the sea floor, lolling in the throes of an immense, benthic force.