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I recently saw an article about the upcoming 10th anniversary show for Max Richter's composition titled "Sleep". What grabbed my attention is the fact that this album is over 8 hours long, and Richter is going to play the album in its entirety over the course of a night.
Digging a little deeper, I found out Sleep is a concept album meant to accompany sleeping. Richter was fascinated with the way music interacts with consciousness—how we perceive music when we aren't consciously aware of it. It was also written as a protest to the increasingly fast-paced world we live in (which has only become more true since 2015). Richter describes Sleep as a "manifesto for a slower pace of existence".
I started Sleep around 8pm. It had gotten dark outside and all my other responsibilities for the day were done (or at least I convinced myself they were). I spent the next few hours on my laptop, listening to the serene soundscapes. Gentle piano, strings, choir. The album's progression was extremely slow, but that's part of it. If you let it consume you, you'll barely notice. Seriously, this album is really relaxing. Much better than "lo-fi beats to study/relax to" (as much as I still love those).
I didn't finish it that night but I got most of the way through. I think it was the first and only time I've listened to an album for 6 hours straight, and I never got bored. That next morning I did finish it, and I loved it. The album got gently 'dreamier' as it went on. Arrangements more reverberated but complex, still carrying those same motifs.
It would feel wrong to give my judgement on Sleep without listening to it while, y'know, sleeping. Last night I was really tired already, so I fell asleep within the first couple tracks. It was nice to listen to for sure, but I just can't listen to music while I sleep. Never really done it before, doesn't really work for me now. After 2 hours I woke up and tried to struggle with getting the earbuds to fit comfortably in my ear for the next hour, before giving up and just turning the album off. Yeah, maybe I'll try it again with my speakers when there's nobody in my house to be annoyed by the sound, but for now I'm just gonna stick to sleeping in silence.
But for my conscious listening session, was it worth the 8 hours? Honestly... yeah. It was one of the best pieces of "background music" I've ever heard, and I'll probably come back to it from time to time.