a Sudden Sunlight

Two albums on one disc-72 minutes in length approximately. This set is somewhere between 3 and 4 "stars". The sound has been remastered from the original tapes and is clean, with good separation between the instruments…

Once considered a remote backwater, Seattle, Washington, and its underground music scene, existed in a state of seclusion. It was a city isolated both geographically from the rest of the country and commercially from the entertainment industry machinations of the major cultural hubs. With technological advancements making the world a smaller place, a huge influx of corporate money changing the demographics of the city itself, and staggering population growth – not to mention the sudden explosion of worldwide interest in Seattle’s musical exports in the early 1990s – the place is not quite the distant territory it once was. Yet, the Emerald City’s subterranean musical petri dish has remained largely a scene unto itself, comprised of devoted DIY practitioners building their community and creating their noise in obscurity.

Considering that Max Richter's soundtrack work far outpaces the rate at which he releases his own albums, this Deutsche Grammophon collection of four of his earliest works is a welcome reminder of their magic. Retrospective gathers his instant-classic, Franz Kafka-inspired 2004 album The Blue Notebooks, which features the Tilda Swinton collaboration "On the Nature of Daylight" and introduced Richter's expressive mix of classical and electronic music to many listeners; the like-minded Songs from Before, which featured Robert Wyatt reading Haruki Murakami texts over Richter's sensitive, piano-driven compositions; 24 Postcards in Full Colour, an eclectic and emotive collection of ringtone-inspired miniatures; and Infra, a piece composed for the Royal Ballet and inspired in equal measure by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Franz Schubert's Winterreise. The collection also includes bonus tracks for each album, including a full orchestral version of "On the Nature of Daylight" and an essay by Paul Morley. Retrospective offers a wonderful way for fans to experience these albums to their fullest, and for newcomers to learn what all the fuss is about.