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Baker's Dozen

In Pursuit Of Restless Beauty: Max Richter's 13 Favourite LPs
Ed Power , July 26th, 2017 11:39

With the release of his deep dive Behind The Counter compilation, composer Max Richter talks to Ed Power about the albums that shaped his musical philosophies and encouraged him to escape the humdrum of suburbia

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Soft Machine – The Soft Machine 
I would have been about 12 when I encountered this for the first time. I came across it at a friend’s house and was immediately transfixed. You’ve got this incredible journeying quality that is very experimental. It goes everywhere, embraces jazz languages, electronic music, psychedelic rock, soul – it is very cut-up and collage-y. You can feel it jumping around in front of your eyes. 

It also has something of that English pastoralism – what you get with early Pink Floyd or Nick Drake. There’s that Wind In The Willows-on-acid aspect. Robert Wyatt’s amazing drumming holds it together in a way – it’s a bit like Can and Jaki Liebezeit in that it’s all about the percussion driving this thing along. Robert is a great songwriter in his own right and I was lucky enough to kidnap him for one of my records. He’s a joy: a lovely, interesting, funny, thoughtful guy. The first Soft Machine LP is very much of its time – but has things to say to us now.