Over the last two decades, Max Richter has honed the art of creating intimate, evocative instrumental music, drawing on the influences of Brian Eno, Philip Glass, and Romantic-era classical composers. Since his 2002 debut Memoryhouse and the landmark The Blue Notebooks in 2004, Richter’s lush, postminimalist style has shaped the modern classical scene. Labels like New Amsterdam Records and Bedroom Community have championed this crossover ethos, while Richter himself has achieved near-popstar status, with over a billion streams and numerous high-profile film and TV scores to his name.
Two decades after The Blue Notebooks, Richter reflects on his career with In a Landscape, a return to the themes that have defined his work, steeped in nostalgia yet forward-looking. While his compositions function like a finely tuned machine, this album shows that there’s still space for growth, as he delves deeper into the melancholy that has always underpinned his music’s surface beauty.
Richter’s music, though often described as pretty, has frequently been used to underscore societal ills. His soundtracks have graced dystopian shows like Black Mirror, and The Blue Notebooks was written in protest of the Iraq War. With In a Landscape, Richter taps into the tension of our time, offering his music as both a solace and a space for contemplation. Unlike his previous works, which lean toward lightness, this album probes the darker, more uncertain corners of his practice, revealing the turbulence beneath the calm.
Throughout In a Landscape, Richter’s melodies descend into somber, downtrodden chords, creating a deeply introspective atmosphere. His compositions often begin with simple, descending phrases—few notes, unhurried—andante, moving in uneven steps. Each phrase is layered with reverb, often concluding on a solemn minor chord, lingering in the gravity of each note. The album opener, “They Will Shade Us With Their Wings,” exemplifies this, with its accented second note resembling a weary sigh after a sharp breath.
This deliberate pacing gives Richter’s music its characteristic pensiveness. On “A Colour Field (Holocene),” a five-note phrase builds tension through its off-kilter motion, introducing dissonance without losing the charm that defines his work. “The Poetry of Earth (Geophony)” begins with minimalist four-note piano melodies, gradually enveloped by swelling romantic strings. Between these compositions, Richter inserts field recordings—footsteps, birds, the hum of cafes—capturing the fleeting, everyday moments that ground the album’s meditative tone.
Yet, as the album progresses, Richter’s meticulous formula risks becoming too precise. The similarities between pieces blur; one might wonder if the baroque motif on “And Some Will Fall” has merely been transposed from an earlier track. His approach feels so refined, so clean, that it sometimes lacks the emotional messiness that gives catharsis its power. But In a Landscape offers one final surprise: the closer, “Movement, Before All Flowers.” Here, the heavy minor chords that dominate the album give way to a lighter, airier sound. A soaring cello rises above oscillating piano, offering a beacon of hope—Richter’s music at its most radiant, emerging from darkness into something even more beautiful.
