New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Max Richter and Sparks today release "Don't Go Away" - their incredible co-written collaboration from Richter's official soundtrack for Netflix's forthcoming film Spaceman - via Decca Records/ Universal Music.
The unique collaboration stemmed from a suggestion by the film's director Johan Renck, with Richter creating the music for the track before Sparks contributed melody and lyrics to create the melancholic finale to the film's soundtrack.
Richter harnesses his vast sonic palette and the direct emotionality of the film's narrative for the soundtrack, recording orchestral music with a 70-piece orchestra at his studio, while also employing various analogue synthesisers, creating faux Baroque material inspired by Czech composer Jan Dismas Zelenka and utilising the language of experimental prog rock such as Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and Sun Ra. The results are an immersive, supernatural aural companion to the film. Richter's official soundtrack for Spaceman is released on Friday March 1st via Decca Records/Universal Music.
Directed by Johan Renck and based on the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař, Spaceman stars Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan. Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late. Spaceman also stars Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, and Isabella Rossellini and releases on Netflix on Friday 1st March.
Spaceman received its global premiere this week at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival with Richter joining the likes of Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan on the red carpet.
"The outer space of our imagination feels like a zone of infinite potential to me, so it is always a pleasure to spend a bit of time out there, beyond the solar system, trying to discover how music might sound in this weird realm of possibilities. And of course, having had a near miss working together in the past, a call from Johan Renck is a welcome thing.
The film is a human love story, set in a strange retro-looking 1970s parallel world. The direct emotionality of the narrative suggested some traditional instrumental colours played by human beings rather than computers, so I wrote a lot of orchestral music which I recorded with a 70-piece orchestra. However, I decided that this story needed something to evoke the sense of doubt that pervades the film, so I subverted the orchestra via a lot of state-of-the-art-in-1970 processing. The tones feel mysteriously organic, but only rarely do they come into a focus we recognise as traditional instrumental sonorities. Adding to the orchestral colours, I worked with a lot of analogue synthesisers, both 1970s period correct, and more modern. The stars of the show on this film are the Moog System 55 modular, the Analogue Solutions Colossus, multiple Soma Lyra drone synths, and of course the legendary Minimoog model D.
Thinking about the imaginary space music of the 1970s, I couldn't ignore the language of experimental Prog rock. Hawkwind and Sun Ra are the masters of that particular universe, but my teen years were much occupied by the glorious keyboard work of Pink Floyd's Rick Wright, on such works as "Interstellar Overdrive", "Cirrus Minor" and "Astronomy Domine". In an obvious thematic connection with the story of "Spaceman", as well as a kind of personal "thank you" to Wright, who passed away in 2008, I have echoed the minimoog sounds he developed for the band's iconic "Wish you were here" in a couple of spots because, in the end, Lenka does wish Jakub was there." - Max Richter
"It was both an honor and a challenge to write a melody and lyrics to Max Richter's lush and beautiful instrumentation to this wonderful and unique film for an end song. To encapsulate both the feel and the narrative of the entire film within 7 1/2 minutes required a great deal of care, but we feel we have been able to at least approach accomplishing this. In addition, the feel of Russell's singing had to match the tone of the film. We thank both Johan and Max for putting their faith in us. It's an extraordinary film." - Ron and Russell Mael, Sparks
Often described as the most influential composer of his generation, Max Richter stands as a pivotal figure on the contemporary music scene. With streaming figures measured in the billions, Richter's works cross boundaries and genres; encompassing solo artist albums, ballets, concert hall performances, cinema and television scores, video art installations and theatre works. He is classically trained, studying at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music, London, and completing his studies with composer Luciano Berio in Florence.
'Memoryhouse', Richter's 2002 debut, was described by Pitchfork as a "landmark", while his 2004 album 'The Blue Notebooks' was chosen by The Guardian as one of the best classical works of the century. 'SLEEP', his eight-and-a-half-hour concert work, has been broadcast and performed worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House, Berlin's Kraftwerk, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, the Philharmonie de Paris, and at the Barbican, London. His last major recorded project, The New Four Seasons, was released in 2022 marking ten years of his Vivaldi Recomposed project, re-recording the piece with period instruments.
Richter is co-founder of Studio Richter Mahr alongside his partner, visual artist Yulia Mahr. Set in the English countryside in Oxfordshire, Max and Yulia built the multimedia production studio inside a former farmhouse and have powered it with cutting-edge solar and heat-pump technology. Located within 31 acres of woodland, the duo have a huge passion for using the land to farm and provide a sustainable working environment, serving as a space where both emerging and established creatives can come to develop their work.
Most people, with even a passing acquaintance with Sparks, will know the basics by now.. How their Top Of The Pops debut with 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us' stunned a generation. How their career moved through many phases, including (but not limited to) art rock, glam, big band swing, electro-disco, new wave and synthpop, taking in collaborations with Todd Rundgren, Les Rita Mitsouko, Tony Visconti, Franz Ferdinand and Giorgio Moroder. How the influence of "the greatest band you've never heard of", or "your favourite band's favourite band", has been recognized by successive generations of artists from Joy Division to Duran Duran to Depeche Mode to Bjork to Beck and beyond. Their influence on music cannot be overstated - as super-producer Jack Antonoff recently declared, "All pop music is rearranged Sparks".
Now into their sixth decade of making music, Sparks have never been more relevant. Recent studio albums Hippopotamus (2017), A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (2020) and The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (2023) all received global acclaim. Whilst the lauded career-spanning documentary film The Sparks Brothers (2021), directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver), and their movie musical Annette (starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard) brought an awareness of Sparks to parts they previously hadn't reached.
