Oh, how I love my profession! It never gets boring. In every element of my life, I am able to identify musical phenomena. There are so many around. But today about something very specific. About the music album. I came across it a few weeks ago and it fit my new Swiss reality quite aptly. “The Blue Notebooks” by Max Richter gives a beautiful feeling of unreality. Wherever I am, when I listen to this music, it gently lifts me up. A few centimetres. Still, it keeps me close to the ground with all the real sounds that accompany the performers in the interludes. As always in classical music, I recommend listening to the album in the order of the tracks.

Richter used Franz Kafka’s texts in his works, giving them the role of stopping in time, and calming emotions in opposition to the prevailing political battles of the written time of the material for the album (2003). The edition was released after 15 years by Deutsche Grammophon. Today, just like then – in 2003 and in 2018 – you can sink in reflection while listening to the album. I recommend it very much.

Kafka’s use of the absurd to investigate power structures struck me as highly relevant. He is, of course, the patron saint of doubt, and doubt – about politics, and the way society was heading – was what I was looking to express. The texts were specifically picked because they refer to childhood, or the passing of time, when everything around is failing – Max Richter

More: www.maxrichtermusic.com