Max Richter

WaterTower Music/Warner Bros.

I’ve yet to see The Leftovers but if the premise alone didn’t have me intrigued this stirring music from Max Richter has been part of the hook.

Interesting to hear Richter lured to TV, as with Cliff Martinez’ recent score for The Knick. In fact, in much the same way as the Martinez score rolls out, Richter’s work here for television features all of the familiar hallmarks of his style and sound, and yet – for want of a term – in miniature. The cues shorter, sharper, but he’s able to pack a lot of emotional weight into one and two-minute pieces (Only Questions, Afterimage 2). And then there are pieces where the strings are allowed to create the slow-build beneath tack piano (Dona Nobis Pacem 1) and we’re reminded of his most enduring, adaptable work – On The Nature of Daylight – without Richter lapsing into tracing around it, or simply lifting it for one further use.

I’ve been playing this album in between Olafur Arnald’s Broadchurch score and the recent solo Nils Frahm album; the perfect space and place for it – from the dramatic opening here through sequences that take on a similar feel and flow to Broadchurch’s studied, rousing meditations with the calmness inside the intensity that Frahm’s music so often offers.

With pieces such as She Remembers and Afterimage 3 Richter has created some of the finest music of his career to date, no mean feat from such a prolific, thoughtful and inspired composer/arranger.

A beautiful sequence that is almost draining, and in the best possible way. Remarkable then that the run-time is just 37 minutes. I feel the despair, hope and intrigue – perfect musical sketches for the television show’s action I’m sure.