Classical Sleep

Max Richter has written a new landmark recording: SLEEP is 8 hours long – the equivalent of a night’s rest – and is actually and genuinely intended to send the listener to sleep. "It’s an eight-hour lullaby," says Max. The ground-breaking new work is scored for piano, strings, electronics and vocals – but no words. "It’s my personal lullaby for a frenetic world," he says. "A manifesto for a slower pace of existence."

The Dowland Project was brought together five years ago by ex-Hilliard Ensemble singer John Potter and producer Manfred Eicher to record music of John Dowland. In the interim, the group has toured widely, building its repertoire as its mission has become clearer. John Potter and friends are approaching early music in a contemporary spirit that celebrates the music’s original intentions and contexts, and along the way they are restoring the improvisational impulse to the ‘classical’ tradition.