★★★½☆ Nodding off to Max Richter’s soporific epic is easier said than done.

Being told you have to go to bed to do a review isn’t a common job requirement. But then again, neither is listening to a piece that plays all through the night. I wasn’t expected to listen to all of Max Richter’s eight-hour epic. If my concentration lapsed and I nodded off, then good! The piece worked. It was a sort of musical product test – like trying out the newest Smartphone gadget, or vacuum cleaner. Just more quiet, and restful.

So, intrigued to review the soporific qualities of this marathon work, I started getting myself ready for bed at the slightly early hour of twenty past nine (9:30pm is a little before my Friday-night bedtime, I’ll admit). I brushed my teeth, put on my pyjamas and got all cosy under the covers with the radio on beside me, tuning the dial to ABC Classic FM’s frequency. It’s #MentalAS week at the ABC, who scheduled the broadcast to raise awareness of mental health in what was one of their longest continuous broadcasts in the history of the station.

At thirty minutes past nine, Julian Day’s velvety voice...