Sleep

Sleep is an eight-and-a-half hour concept album based around the neuroscience of sleep by German-British composer Max Richter. Sleep was conceived by Richter and his partner, the visual artist Yulia Mahr. It is targeted to fit a full night’s rest. Richter talked with American neuroscientist David Eagleman while working on the album’s piece to learn about how the brain functions during sleep.

Sleep was performed in its entirety from midnight to 8:00 AM at the Wellcome Collection in 2015 as the climax of the BBC Radio 3 «Science and Music» weekend. Audience members watched from beds instead of chairs. The performance set records for the longest broadcast and longest live broadcast of a single piece of music. The album was also performed at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2017, and outdoors in Grand Park, Los Angeles in 2018. The Los Angeles performances had 560 beds and were timed so the final movement, «Dream 0 (till break of day)» would occur at dawn.