RTÉ lyric fm invites listeners to tune in on Easter Monday for the broadcast of Max Richter’s world record breaking Sleep, a work composed in consultation with renowned American neuroscientist David Eagleman. At a time where people the world over are struggling to sleep with the worries of Covid-19, Sleep offers a mindful way to forget everything going on around us and to enter another world in the company of RTÉ lyric fm.
The 2015 BBC premiere broadcast of Sleep, broke two Guinness World Records for longest continuous broadcast and the longest live broadcast of a single piece of music.
With its 8 hours of continuous music, it will most probably be the longest work ever broadcast on radio in Ireland. Aodán O’Dubhghaill, Head of RTÉ lyric fm suggests “it will allow listeners to experience the unknown dimensions of time – something all of us have been facing in recent times”.
The composition has achieved much success internationally with Billboard USA attributing the recent return of Sleep to the number one position in the USA Billboard Classical Music Charts as being due to ‘audiences seeking out peaceful music’, arguably during this anxiety inducing pandemic.
The work intends to examine the relationship between music and the subconscious mind. Rather than giving the music our full concentration, listeners are encouraged to experience it in a state of sleep. The piece indeed provides an apt soundtrack for these times when hours can seemingly stretch into the distance.
Lyric is responding to the pandemic with what it does best – music – and by offering this special late night/early morning broadcast as a response to these extraordinary times and the fact that so many people are in need of something consolatory. Max Richter himself described this work aptly as a ‘lullaby for a frenetic world’. In this work, composer Max Richter performs piano and electronics and is joined by soprano Grace Davidson plus five string players, and you the listeners are encouraged to lie on beds and sleep through the performance.
So, relax, practice mindfulness, sleep or simply escape with this unique composition on RTÉ lyric fm , Monday 13th April at 12 midnight to 8am.