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A TAV Curator's Pick.

Rough Trade Shops Present Behind the Counter with Max Richter. This spectacular compilation put together by much-loved British composer Max Richter is the first in Rough Trade Shop’s Behind the Counter series, in which some Rough Trade’s favourite artists create mixes especially for them using the records sold on the shop floor.

As big fans of Max, Rough Trade invited him to curate a mix, knowing he would pick out some unexpected gems. The result is a 36-track (on CD) and 33-Track (On Vinyl) compilation of soundbites, pieces of composition, interesting mixes and curious musical choices including tracks from Mogwai, Boards of Canada, Philip Glass, Aphex Twin and Low among some classical works by Rachmaninoff and Bach.

The Rough Trade LP exclusive version comes complete with an added bonus 7". A much loved rarity, the music on this exclusive 7” comes from Max’s cult 2008 score for the film Henry May Long. Over the years it has been equally influential among musicians as the much better known Waltz with Bashir from the same period. With Henry May Long, Max brought a completely new instrumental grammar to film music. Recommended for fans of Olafur Arnalds’ score to Broadchurch. – Rough Trade

“Most mix albums are risky prospects, either ploughing a single furrow endlessly, as in most hip-hop ones, or fulfilling some ulterior motive on the part of the curator. Not in this case: Max Richter’s only motive here is beauty, drawn from all corners of his musical interests, which are many and varied. The result is a journey that takes one from Renaissance choral polyphony to the inventive precocity of teen duo Let’s Eat Grandma, via Bach and Handel, minimalism, post-rock and electronica, with nary a misstep in sound, selection or sequence – as asserted by the first disc’s seamless shifts from the misty strings, discordant horns and agitated woodwind of Charles Ives’ “The Unanswered Question”, through a stately, elegant Bach piano piece by Alfred Brendel, to an acappella work sculpted from breaths, low moans and pulses by Roomful Of Teeth. Entire continents, modes, and musical attitudes traversed within a few minutes, without a hint of incongruity or discontinuity: a rare feat, and a rare treat.” – The Independent

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