Max Richter‘s Memoryhouse will be reissued on vinyl by FatCat’s 130701 sub-label.
One of Europe’s most renowned modern composers and soundtrackers, Richter co-founded the Piano Circus ensemble in the 1990s, working with the likes of Brian Eno, Philip Glass and Future Sound of London, Roni Size and more as the decade progressed. This coming January 24, Richter will perform Memoryhouse in full at the London Barbican with conductor André de Ridder, with the reissue arriving the same month (January 27). Memoryhouse was originally released on the BBC’s Late Junction label in 2002, and has been reissued once before, in 2009 through 130701.
In 2008, FACT spoke to Max Richter about his classic 2004 album The Blue Notebooks, you can read that interview here.
From Memoryhouse‘s press release:
Recorded by Richter with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and critically lauded on its original release, the record is quite deservedly held very dear to the broad-reaching ‘post-classical’ field. October 2009 saw a long-awaited re-release on FatCat Records’ instrumental/orchestral imprint 130701 – also home to Hauschka, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Dustin O’Halloran.
The record is best seen as a series of linked pieces in different media (orchestra/solo/electronic). Various musical themes, motifs and variations appear and reappear throughout Memoryhouse, sometimes as fleeting as a single melody that slips away almost as soon as it is heard. Opening piece ‘Europe After The Rain’ sets out the primary themes that are eventually taken in, re-aligned and re-introduced across the course of the album. A kind of “documentary music” (to borrow Max’s phrase), Memoryhouse is an exploration of real and imaginary stories and histories: ‘Laika’s Journey’ refers to the Soviet space dog who was, at once, the first living creature to orbit the earth and the first astronautic tragedy; ‘Jan’s Notebook’ is an ode to the Dutch composer Jan Sweelinck, written for a harpischord found in the studio.
‘Memoryhouse’ was produced by Max at BBC Manchester, with the engineering and mixing assistance of Neil Hutchinson. The album features soloists Alex Balanescu (violin) and Sarah Leonard (soprano).
Tracklist:
Europe After The Rain
Maria The Poet (1913)
Laika’s Journey
The Twins (Prague)
Sarajevo
Andras
Untitled (Figures)
Sketchbook
November
Jan’s Notebook
Arbenita (11 years)
Garden (1973) / Interior
Landscape With Figure (1922)
Fragment
Lines An A Page (One Hundred Violins)
Embers
Last Days
Quartet Fragment (1908)
