Within the depths of the middle of the ocean is where
Infra resides. There's no life, no light, no call for help that can reach the decibals needed to be heard. Max Richter takes us out here in his visionary display of neo-classical dominance with haunting static layering brilliant piano and violin passages ensinuating a lost soul at sea, and he has invited us to join in on his struggle.
Infra is at once calming and provoking, using just enough restraint to keep listeners at bay but enveloping them with at times unbearable amounts of beautiful atmosphere to rock the boat, but not sink it. Some tracks are entirely piano-led and some entirely violin-led, most of the time following one another but
Infra never loses focus or composure. It works just as well as a complete harrowing experience as much as picking out your favorite individual tracks to play over and over until your sick of the beauty, which just might never happen.
While it never reaches the ambitious heights of Richter's preceding opus
The Blue Notebooks in terms of overarching senses of Richter's ability,
Infra acts as a distant cousin to
The Blue Notebooks, a more direct hit of Richter's talents and at times a more penetrating one. It's a much more simple album, sure, but Richter is smart enough to know how to perform addition by subtraction, lessening the elctronica influences and by doing that gaining a more raw and personal affair. There's still ambience to be found, as "Infra 1" begins with off-centered feedback and a vocal loop that sounds like a Navy diver who has been submerged for hours on end, until little glistens of light start to peak through the dense static in the form of keyboards and droning bass until the violins kick in. The effect is uplifting yet incredibly sad, as if our diver has but a few more minutes to breathe but realizes it wasn't all for nothing and we can all live (or should I say die) with that.
However, that's where the mainstay of ambience ends and the rest of
Infra plays out as the journey to the afterlife for this diver, the in between of this world and the next. Static still continues to play through the remainder of the album as if it's the very bridge our diver's soul is floating across, but the rest of the music is simply either gorgeous piano melodies or brooding violin passages. The former seems to be Richter's strong suit on the album; whether it's the repeated, almost Radiohead-like piano progressions of "Journey 1", the soaring precision of "Infra 3" or the minimalist "Journey 5", which almost exclusively uses two keys on the piano to create such wonderful beauty. "Infra 6" is the real winner however, as its piano melody builds and builds to nothing and while you're on the ride it's hard not to consider it one of the best songs of the year.
With
Infra, Max Richter safely cements himself as one of the better and more insightful neo-classical composers of this time. His musical ability is only overshadowed by his excellent use of atmosphere and static ambience, and when those two forces come together we get something as brilliant as
The Blue Notebooks or as desolate and vivid as
Infra. His compositions are moving, thought provoking, calming, and sincere and you just know this man is playing and creating from his heart. It's almost scary to hear
Infra from him, as Max Richter is one of the last people on this planet I want to envision as a lost soul at sea, longing for help.
