Max Richter on the Grammar of Music

"Max Richter dials in from his Oxford studio. Behind him are shelves and shelves of books, before which a grand piano sits centre stage. "I see music as a way of making enquiries into the world," he says, with a rhythm not dissimilar to that of his music - thoughtful, eloquent, transcendental. "A way to make a map, in a way.""

"The German-British composer grew up in the kind of household where artists like Bach and Schubert played from the record player around the clock. "Traditionally German," he says. Richter recalls hearing Bach's Brandenburg Concerto as a child and being intoxicated by its language, its grammar. A lifelong relationship with the piano began. As he found that playing the instrument could function "like a diary", it became his way of making sense of the world."

Max Richter works from an Oxford studio surrounded by books and a grand piano. He sees music as a way of making enquiries into the world. He grew up in a household playing Bach and Schubert and was intoxicated by Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, forming a lifelong relationship with the piano and using playing like a diary to make sense of the world. His music blends classical and modern electronic elements across film scores, fashion collaborations and concert works. Sleep was an eight-and-a-half-hour exploration of sound and sleep. Sleep Circle is a 90-minute hypnagogic record released September 5, with an all-night Sleep performance at Alexandra Palace on September 5 and 6.

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