I hope you’ll sleep through my music, says British composer

By Chris Harris with REUTERS

Published on 17/06/2015 - 17:08

Whether it’s a bold bassline or funky riff, music often has the power to excite, stimulate and lift your spirits.

Except of course if you are listening to British composer Max Richter’s latest record, which he says, is intended to send people to sleep.

The eight-hour piece will premiere in Berlin this September in a concert hall fitted with beds instead of seats.

“It’s a piece of nighttime music and I’m hoping people will actually sleep through it,” Richter says in a trailer for the piece released on YouTube.

“In a way it’s a question about how everything is getting faster, all our lives are accelerating and I think many of us feel the need to rest, a point of repose. And that’s what this piece is — an eight hour place to rest.”

Sleep, which will be released digitally on September 4, is said to be the longest piece of classical music ever recorded.

“Sleeping is one of the most important things we all do,” he said. “We spend a third of our lives asleep and it’s always been one of my favourite things, ever since I was a child.”