“…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.” Max Richter
With his first live broadcast in 2015 SLEEP broke two Guinness World Records; for the longest broadcast of a single piece of music, and the longest live broadcast of a single piece of music. Since the world premiere, the piece has been staged across the globe, with landmark concerts in Paris, Los Angeles and Sydney – with audiences in beds, not seats.
Both From Sleep – the one-hour version & SLEEP - are, on the one hand, an experiment Richter is conducting to find out "how the brain can be a habitat for music when our consciousness is on vacation." While composing, Richter interviewed respected American neuroscientist David Eagleman to learn more about brain function during sleep.
