In late 1970s Bedford, England, a boy taking apart electronics to build analog synthesizers after hearing Kraftwerk's Autobahn was also receiving records by Philip Glass, Terry Riley and John Cage from his local milkman. This episode explores how Max Richter, born in Hamelin, West Germany in 1966, combined formal piano training in Bach and Beethoven with Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and American minimalism, chafed against the rigid Polish-school modernism of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and found validation studying under Luciano Berio in Florence. It follows his ten years with the ensemble Piano Circus and his 1990s collaborations with Future Sound of London, Roni Size and Vashti Bunyan.

The conversation then traces his 2002 solo debut Memoryhouse, built with the BBC Philharmonic around the Kosovo conflict, and 2004's The Blue Notebo ...