Max Richter was born in Germany but grew up in the UK, eventually settling in Edinburgh. He’s classically trained, but also heavily influenced by electronic music, and contributed to Future Sound of London albums and Roni Size’s Reprazent before releasing a series of influential solo albums. He’s scored several films, most notably Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir, while his music has also appeared in Martin Scorsece’s Shutter Island, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and more. Richter’s early albums (2002’s Memoryhouse, 2004’s The Blute Notebooks) are landmarks of modern classical in their embrace of electronics, and he’s continued to break new ground on his latest album. Titled SLEEP, Richter’s new album is eight hours long (though don’t worry, there’s an hour-long condensed version for the norms), designed to soundtrack a listeners’s sleep. In Richter’s words, it’s “an eight-hour lullaby … my personal lullaby for a frenetic world. A manifesto for a slower pace of existence.” To celebrate the release of SLEEP, we’ve coaxed Richter’s first ever mix out of him, a celebration of groundbreaking classical music both classic (Bach, Glass) and contemporary (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), plus the likes of Grouper, Cat Power and Boards of Canada. Richter explains that the tracks he picked for the mix are “all about transcendence, a going beyond the known, a questioning of the day to day. I feel like one of the things the sleeping offers is a sort of connection to the unknown part of ourselves and a journey beyond our normal experience. Music can feel like this too – a landscape of unknown possibilities, rich with questions.” SLEEP is out now in both full-length and condensed formats. Keep scrolling for a catch-up with Richter about his FACT mix, SLEEP and more.