TO MARK WORLD SLEEP DAY COMPOSER MAX RICHTER INVITES AUDIENCES TO JOIN HIM IN A COLLECTIVE MOMENT OF REFLECTION

In 2015 the composer Max Richter premiered SLEEP, a landmark 8.5 hour musical recording played overnight to sleeping audiences. The landmark piece, a live incarnation of his 2015 album of the same name, was premiered in London (becoming the longest single continuous piece of music ever broadcast live on the radio) and has since been performed around the world in a variety of stunning venues including the Sydney Opera House, Grand Park in Los Angeles, Kraftwerk Berlin, the Philharmonie de Paris and at the Great Wall of China.

To mark World Sleep Day 2021 on Friday, 19 March, renowned composer and activist Max Richter invites people from around the world to join him in a collective moment of meditative reflection with a special 1hour listening experience on his hugely popular SLEEP app. His acclaimed SLEEP documentary will also be available in multiple countries worldwide.

Max aims to bring together listeners around the world in a collective moment of musical reflection. The piece provides an apt soundtrack for these times of uncertainty and lockdown – when hours seemingly stretch into the distance. Sleep offers a mindful way to focus on the collective experience of Sleep with Max Richter and his creative partner Yulia Mahr’s ‘manifesto for a slower pace of existence’

SLEEP is a call to contemplation in challenging times, offering is an immersive and meditative respite from the chaos of the world, and exploring the power of music to offer refuge; the power of collective experience to unite us. The project seeks to examine the relationship between music and the subconscious mind, and to foreground the communal aspect of music performance and listening.

Sleep was composed in consultation with American neuroscientist David Eagleman. In Max Richter’s words: “Five years ago I wrote SLEEP as an invitation to pause our busy lives for a moment. Now we are all facing an unexpected and unwelcome pause. It is far from easy to adjust to this new normal, which daily brings fresh anxiety and suffering to our communities, to those we love, and to ourselves. At this time the magical ability of creativity to elevate our days and to connect us with one another is more valuable than ever”.

SLEEP APP – A SPECIAL ONE HOUR LISTENING EXPERIENCE

Max Richter’s opus SLEEP, his ‘lullaby for a frenetic world’, continues to evolve five years on and last year Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Music Germany’s Marketing Labs launched a hugely successful app. The app enables listeners to reimagine the 8.5-hour Deutsche Grammophon recording in custom-made personalised musical sessions to help with focus, meditation and sleep and gives the listener aural spaces in which to escape for a few moments.

Richter invites audiences to a new hour-long listening experience to his hugely popular Sleep app and hopes the world will unite together in a collective moment of meditative reflection on World Sleep Day.