Songs from Before
Piano, strings and short-wave radio, with Robert Wyatt reading Haruki Murakami.
Max Richter, 2006
- Released
- 23 October 2006
- Studio
- Eastcote Studios and The Exchange Studios, London
- Label
- 130701
- Producer
- Max Richter
Songs from Before is Richter's third solo album, issued on 130701 and reissued by Deutsche Grammophon in 2014. Robert Wyatt reads passages from Haruki Murakami's novels between the pieces: Dance Dance Dance, Norwegian Wood, South of the Border, West of the Sun and Sputnik Sweetheart.
It was recorded at Eastcote Studios, where Phil Bagnal and Anna Tjan engineered, and at The Exchange Studios, where Mark Rankin engineered. Richter produced and mixed, and played piano alongside Chris Worsey and Ian Burdge on cello and Natalia Bonner on violin. Pitchfork's Grayson Haver Currin heard the electronic passages as manipulated short-wave radio recordings and singled out Autumn Music 1 and Autumn Music 2. Pitchfork called it his most cohesive album to date, and The Guardian's John L Waters gave it four stars.
Track listing
- Song4:12
- Flowers for Yulia6:50
- Fragment1:41
- Harmonium4:23
- Ionosphere1:25
- Autumn Music 13:54
- Time Passing1:51
- Sunlight5:35
- Lullaby0:53
- Autumn Music 23:49
- Verses1:43
- From the Rue Vilin1:02
Personnel
- Max Richter piano, producer, mixing
- Robert Wyatt readings
- Chris Worsey cello
- Ian Burdge cello
- Natalia Bonner violin
- Louisa Fuller violin
- Rick Costa violin
- John Metcalfe viola
- Phil Bagnal recording
- Anna Tjan recording
- Mark Rankin recording
More from Max Richter
Memoryhouse (2002), The Blue Notebooks (2004), 24 Postcards in Full Colour (2008), Infra (2010), Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi, The Four Seasons (2012), Sleep (2015), Voices (2020), In a Landscape (2024)
Sources
- Songs from Before (Max Richter album), Wikipedia
- Songs from Before (master), Discogs
- Songs from Before (CD), Discogs
- Songs from Before, Pitchfork (2006-11-28)