Max Richter: Memoryhouse

I don't really know where to put this record. The fact that it was originally released on the BBC's Late Junction label and has now been re-issued on Fat Cat's "instrumental/classical" imprint, 130701, places composer Max Richter's album Memoryhouse in the hinterland that lies between the pop/rock and classical worlds.

I've been sitting on this album for months now and I must say it took me a long while to really get into it; party owing, I suspect, to this very issue of place. I simply couldn't work out how to approach it. If one were to read Memoryhouse as a straight-up contemporary-classical work then it would fall flat on its face - the themes too simplistic, the strokes too broad, the overarching impact far too immediate and straightforward. But then to view this record solely in that light is to miss the point, for this is certainly not a "classical" record.

While not knowing the name Max Richter, most of you will probably be aware of his work on Ali Folman's excellent Waltz With Bashir, and the fact that he is best known for soundtrack work casts quite a shadow over this release. To the best of my knowledge Memoryhouse is intended to stand in isolation, but every time I listen to it I immediately feel like I'm listening to part of something bigger.

If anything, this is a record of incidental scoring that has transcended its limitations. One that, if used on a run-of-the-mill TV documentary, would overshadow its visual counterparts and leave the viewer thinking, "gosh, they really went to town on that soundtrack!". Any mere factual observations in the program would be overshadowed by the majesty of the music (performed on this record by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra). For indeed this is a majestic record; too simple, maybe, when judged on technical and academic criteria, but in terms of pure emotional impact this record packs a punch. Evocative and stirring, Memoryhouse feels like it ought to be accompanying themes of vast importance and epic scope, but heard in isolation it sounds like something's missing.