Latest news with #MaxRichter
CBC
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Max Richter's music put dozens of soldiers to sleep
This year marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most streamed classical records of all time: Sleep by the acclaimed composer and pianist Max Richter. It's an eight-and-a-half-hour epic that you're meant to listen to while you're asleep. In an interview with Q 's Tom Power, Richter says the project got its start in 2013 or 2014, when 4G technology was making the internet more accessible and convenient for the first time. "I was talking with Yulia, my partner, and we were thinking about how creative works can, in a way, function as a kind of alternate reality," he says. "So we thought about this idea of a piece of music as a kind of a pause, or a holiday from this kind of 24/7 data blizzard. And so that's kind of the origins of Sleep." WATCH | Max Richter's full interview with Tom Power: At some performances of the piece, audiences could sleep or lie in a bed as they listened to the music. Richter says Sleep tends to operate on people in very meaningful ways. "The piece works a lot on subsonics," he explains. "Very low frequencies — you feel it physically. In a way, it sort of lulls you, you know, neuroscientists would call it 'rhythmic entrainment.' It sort of synchronizes your body's tempo, in a way, with the tempo of the piece. "The other thing is that the spectrum of the piece mirrors the spectrum that the unborn child hears in the womb because the mother's body filters out all of the high frequencies. So this low frequency pulsing, which is at the heart of Sleep, reminds us of something. It reminds us of something that we've all experienced, even before we knew we were a person." In October 2019, Richter gave a historic performance of Sleep at the Great Wall of China. "We get to the venue and it's surrounded by soldiers with guns, you know, really quite hard-core, scary security," he recalls. "It's kind of stressful, everyone is a bit freaked out. So we start playing the thing and after about two hours I get a break … and I see all these soldiers with their guns asleep on the floor. Dozens of them, just sleeping. And I was just like, 'Yeah. That's it. That's why we're doing this.'" Though Richter made Sleep to be experienced while sleeping, he says many fans have told him they listen to the piece at the office, while doing yoga or while studying. He says music is an art form that you feel, and it can have a real effect on your day. "Maybe this is sort of naive, but I do have faith in music," Richter says. "That sounds, maybe, slightly crazy, but I do sort of believe in the potential of creative work to elicit changes in the world. I experienced that in my own life. If I get out of bed in the morning, I'm making the coffee, I stick the radio on, and it's like [Beethoven's Eroica symphony] or something, my day is going to be a bit better. It just is. One per cent better. But, you know, I really believe in that one per cent."
CairoScene
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- CairoScene
German-British Composer Max Richter to Perform at Dubai Opera
The concert will see Richter perform his latest album, 'In a Landscape', as well as his classic 'The Blue Notebooks'. Feb 24, 2025 German-British composer and pianist Max Richter - renowned for blending classical compositions with modern electronic sounds - is throwing a concert at Dubai Opera on Wednesday, February 26th. The concert is part of his 2025 world tour, which sees him perform live in Canada, Australia, Italy and Spain, as well as various US cities like Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, Chicago. The concert will see Richter perform his latest album, 'In a Landscape', in addition to selected pieces from Richter's 20-year-old 'The Blue Notebooks' album. The concert begins at 8 PM sharp, with ticket prices ranging from AED 330 to AED 580 via Dubai Opera's official site.
Yahoo
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Human artists could disappear if copyright not protected from AI
Allowing the erosion of copyright rules to enable AI models to be trained on artists' material could see human artists disappear and may damage culture, British lawmakers have been told. Composer Max Richter said the training of AI models of copyrighted created material that could enable it to replicate human artists would 'impoverish' human creators and lead to a 'vanilla-isation' of music culture. Richter was giving evidence to a joint sitting of the Culture, Media and Sport and Science, Innovation and Technology select committees on the subject of copyright and artificial intelligence. The government recently launched a consultation around the issue, and suggested it may introduce an exemption to copyright law for 'text and data mining', but with an opt-out system for artists. Richter told MPs that there was currently 'nothing' he could do to stop AI models generating a piece of music which sounds 'uncannily' like him. 'Now that wouldn't be possible unless it hoovered up my stuff without asking me and without paying for it – and I think that's happening on a huge scale, it's happened to basically every artist whose work is on the internet,' he said. 'In the longer term, that's going to lead to, I think societal consequences. You're going to get a 'vanilla-isation' of music culture as this automated material starts to edge out human creators, and I also think you're going to get an impoverishing of human creators. 'It's worth remembering that the music business in the UK is a real success story – it was £7.6 billion ($9.4 billion) income last year, 200,000 people employed and that is a big impact. It's the second biggest music exporter after the US, so this is a big thing. 'If we allow the erosion of copyright, which is how value is created in the music sector, then we're going to be in a position where there won't be artists in the future.' He added that an 'opt-in' system would be much more acceptable to artists as it would put less onus on individuals to 'police' and monitor who was trying to use their work. Last month, Elton John and Paul McCartney both spoke out against the government's proposals. Richter, and other representatives from the creative industries giving evidence, also said they would support a licensing system where AI developers had to pay to access content, but that more transparency measures were also needed in the sector. Speaking in an earlier session, AI expert James Smith, the co-founder and chief executive of Human Native AI, an AI data marketplace where AI developers can pay to access data, said it had to be accepted that the entire public internet had already been consumed by AI models. 'We've been looking at how you build AI models – how companies like Google and OpenAI – they require huge amounts of data to put out these models,' he said. 'I think that's all well understood. The internet has generally already been consumed into these models. 'I think we have to all accept that as truth as well. Now if you agree if that's correct or not is a difficult issue, and there are some jurisdictions where it may or may not be legal. 'I think the challenge is that a lot of the damage on text and data mining has probably already been done – the original sin, if you like, has happened, and I think the question is how do we move forward?' He added that he too would like to see the government examine a licensing approach to the issue.
The Independent
04-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Human artists could disappear if copyright not protected from AI, MPs told
Allowing the erosion of copyright rules to enable AI models to be trained on artists' material could see human artists disappear and may damage culture, MPs have been told. Composer Max Richter said the training of AI models of copyrighted created material that could enable it to replicate human artists would 'impoverish' human creators and lead to a 'vanilla-isation' of music culture. Mr Richter was giving evidence to a joint sitting of the Culture, Media and Sport and Science, Innovation and Technology select committees on the subject of copyright and artificial intelligence. The Government recently launched a consultation around the issue, and suggested it may introduce an exemption to copyright law for 'text and data mining', but with an opt-out system for artists. If we allow the erosion of copyright, which is how value is created in the music sector, then we're going to be in a position where there won't be artists in the future Max Richter Mr Richter told MPs that there was currently 'nothing' he could do to stop AI models generating a piece of music which sounds 'uncannily' like him. 'Now that wouldn't be possible unless it hoovered up my stuff without asking me and without paying for it – and I think that's happening on a huge scale, it's happened to basically every artist whose work is on the internet,' he said. 'In the longer term, that's going to lead to, I think societal consequences. You're going to get a 'vanilla-isation' of music culture as this automated material starts to edge out human creators, and I also think you're going to get an impoverishing of human creators. 'It's worth remembering that the music business in the UK is a real success story – it was £7.6 billion income last year, 200,000 people employed and that is a big impact. It's the second biggest music exporter after the US, so this is a big thing. 'If we allow the erosion of copyright, which is how value is created in the music sector, then we're going to be in a position where there won't be artists in the future.' He added that an 'opt-in' system would be much more acceptable to artists as it would put less onus on individuals to 'police' and monitor who was trying to use their work. Last month, Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney both spoke out against the Government's proposals. Mr Richter, and other representatives from the creative industries giving evidence, also said they would support a licensing system where AI developers had to pay to access content, but that more transparency measures were also needed in the sector. Speaking in an earlier session, AI expert James Smith, the co-founder and chief executive of Human Native AI, an AI data marketplace where AI developers can pay to access data, said it had to be accepted that the entire public internet had already been consumed by AI models. 'We've been looking at how you build AI models – how companies like Google and OpenAI – they require huge amounts of data to put out these models,' he said. 'I think that's all well understood. The internet has generally already been consumed into these models. 'I think we have to all accept that as truth as well. Now if you agree if that's correct or not is a difficult issue, and there are some jurisdictions where it may or may not be legal. 'I think the challenge is that a lot of the damage on text and data mining has probably already been done – the original sin, if you like, has happened, and I think the question is how do we move forward?' He added that he too would like to see the Government examine a licensing approach to the issue.
