Sleep

There’s nothing we do more than sleep, and Max Richter’s eight-and-a-half-hour concept album models this fascinating activity. Richter consulted with American neuroscientist David Eagleman while composing Sleep, and the resulting 31 compositions reflect how the brain functions in natural sleep cycles. Like its namesake, the album is a mysterious paradox: Although intended to be listened to at night, the calming music nurtures a dreamlike stillness that is equally tantalising in daylight. Richter’s signature sound of string quartet, piano, organ, voice and electronics is unhurried, cavernous and celestial with a glacially stepping “Dream 19 (pulse)” cello swaddled in warm electronics and expansive “nor earth, nor boundless sea” strings. The echoing “Non-eternal” vocals are suspended in time; by contrast, the bassline motion of “never fade into nothingness” seems to move mountains. But don’t be fooled by the soothing, mellow vibe: By encouraging the classical music listener to fall asleep, Sleep is as radical as any of Richter’s works.