Max Richter

Max Richter is a contemporary classically trained composer and musician. By my judgment he is absolutely a musical prodigy, certainly amongst the most gifted musical artists of this time. His pieces can often be characterized as avant-garde as he blends modern and classical elements, breaking conventions to enable the forging of some extraordinary, transcendental aural experience. Interestingly his Wikipedia page mentions him "commissioning and performing works by Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe and Steve Reich" early in his career, which happen to be a few of my favorite artists. Predictably enough, his music has had a rather profound impact on my life several times over several albums. Nonetheless, I know enough to understand music is as subjective as it gets, to the extent that the reactions of others can be rather hard to predict. Well, there's only one way to find out; here's some evidence for my conjecture:

The thing is, like many great musicians, he doesn't just write songs, he writes albums. Thus, as great as this song is alone on this page, it is but a mere shadow of itself when played as part of the whole. I recommend purchasing all his albums, if only to ensure he's funded and motivated to continue producing lots of music for as long as possible.