09/12/08
Text: Nik Mercer
Berlin-based composer, Max Richter, is one hell of a conceptual guy, not to mention one of the few "crossover" musicians who brings classically-toned songs to an otherwise pop-centric world.
On September 23, Richter is releasing 24 Postcards via FatCat Records' imprint, 130701. The album features twenty-four thematic "ringtone" compositions by the incredibly skilled pianist. Each delicate, intricately detailed and arranged short song successfully evokes a unique memory, feeling, or sentiment, and on that merit alone, 24 Postcards is worth picking up.
But there's more! Each track truly is a ringtone set to be premiered in various gallery spaces. Here's the idea:
"The première is intended to be in the form of a series of installations where pre-registered audience members switch on their phones to receive SMS messages, each message alert playing back one or more of the tracks, so making up the performance. In tandem with this release, will be a micro-website hosting 24 photographic images, one accompanying each track. As Max explains: 'Thinking about how we listen to music today, I wondered why it is that ringtones have so far been treated as unfit for creative music… Who says ringtones have to be bad?.. It’s like saying LPs or CDs are bad – its just a medium... '"
The unmoderated manner in which the songs will congeal in these galleries is especially appealing to us... now to track one of them down!
