Max Richter – 'While The Flood Rages' review: Hope amid the wreckage
The composer turns his ballet score based on Margaret Atwood's 'MaddAddam' trilogy into a standalone album. The Line of Best Fit awards it 8 out of 10.
Photo: Henry W. Laurisch / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
Single video: YouTube · Max Richter · youtube.com
Single: Now We Can Sing
Max Richter released 'While The Flood Rages' on Decca on 16 October. It is based on his score for choreographer Wayne McGregor's ballet 'MaddAddam', after Margaret Atwood's trilogy of the same name – a co-commission by the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Opera House. The 15 pieces in three acts deal with ecological crisis, technological acceleration and human connection. 'I took the material apart and created a trajectory that makes sense just through listening,' Richter said, according to his label.
The Line of Best Fit gives it 8 out of 10. Critic Ray Honeybourne hears a world being devoured by industry and commerce – and within it, hope for a new humanity. 'Wave After Wave' opens with a darker take on Richter's 'Europe, After the Rain', the title track with a calm, hopeful piano melody, while 'Oh Let Me Not Be Proud' blends choir and electronics. The album closes with the single 'Now We Can Sing' and its big orchestral crescendo. Clash calls the record 'typically masterful'.
The release is accompanied by listening events worldwide – in Berlin on 23 October at Pastiche – and a limited-edition crossword book with essays by Anahid Nersessian and Victoria Trumbull.