[1][2][3][4] Richter is classically trained, having graduated in composition from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal Academy of Music in London, and studied with Luciano Berio in Italy.

[13] He stayed with the group for ten years, commissioning and performing works by minimalist musicians such as Arvo Pärt, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Julia Wolfe, and Steve Reich.

[18] Several of the tracks, such as "Sarajevo", "November", "Arbenita", and "Last Days", deal with the aftermath of the Kosovo conflict, while others are of childhood memories (e.g. "Laika's Journey").

The music combines ambient sounds, voices (including that of John Cage), and poetry readings from the work of Marina Tsvetaeva.

[20] Pitchfork gave the re-release an 8.7 rating, commenting on its extensive influence:In 2002, Richter’s ability to weave subtle electronics against the grand BBC Philharmonic Orchestra helped suggest new possibilities and locate fresh audiences that composers such as Nico Muhly and Michał Jacaszek have since pursued.

"[24] To mark the 10th anniversary of its release, Richter created a track-by-track commentary for Drowned in Sound, in which he described the album as a series of interconnected dreams and an exploration of the chasm between lived experience and imagination.

[25] The second track, "On the Nature of Daylight", is used in both the opening and closing sequences of the sci-fi film Arrival[26] and on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island.

On the eve of its 2018 reissue, marking the 15th anniversary of its release, Fact named the album "one of the most iconic pieces of classical and protest music of the 21st century.

So I set out to make these tiny little fragments and then, of course, in the poetic sense, the idea of these little sounds carrying objects traversing the planet—I started to think of these as a connection, as a sort of postcard into somebody's life, into their space."

Richter's 2010 album Infra takes as its central theme the 2005 terrorist bombings in London,[31] and is an extension of his 25-minute score for a ballet of the same name choreographed by Wayne McGregor and staged at the Royal Opera House.

[32] Infra comprises music written for piano, electronics, and string quintet, plus the full performance score and material that developed from the construction of the album.

[33] Pitchfork called the album "achingly gorgeous"[34] and The Independent characterised it as "a journey in 13 episodes, emerging from a blur of static and finding its way in a repeated phrase that grows in loveliness".

[41] In 2015, Richter released his most ambitious project to date, a collaboration with visual artist and creative partner Yulia Mahr[42] titled Sleep, an 8.5-hour listening experience targeted to fit a full night's rest.

The music is calm, slow, and mellow, and composed for piano, cello, two violas, two violins, organ, soprano vocals, synthesisers, and electronics.

[58] Richter's Voices project, a collaboration with visual artist Yulia Mahr,[59] is inspired by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and features an 'upside down' orchestra, a concept he developed to reflect his dismay about post-truth politics in the 21st century.

[65] Exiles includes extended versions of previously released works such as "The Haunted Ocean", "Infra 5", "Flowers Of Herself", "On The Nature Of Daylight" and "Sunlight".

[70] In July 2010, "On the Nature of Daylight" and "Vladimir's Blues" were featured throughout the BBC Two two-part drama Dive, co-written by Dominic Savage and Simon Stevens.

[72] Richter also wrote the soundtrack to Peter Richardson's documentary How to Die in Oregon[73] and the score to Impardonnables, directed by André Téchiné.

Films featuring Richter's music released in 2011 include French drama Sarah's Key by Gilles Paquet-Brenner and David MacKenzie's romantic thriller Perfect Sense.

Richter composed the original soundtrack for the HBO series The Leftovers, created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, which premiered in June 2014.

Also that year, he scored Luke Scott's debut feature Morgan and the political thriller Miss Sloane, while his piece "On the Nature of Daylight" opened and closed Denis Villeneuve's film Arrival.

[78] In December 2017 an excerpt of Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons was used in The Crown as the theme for Princess Margaret's (Vanessa Kirby) turbulent courtship with photographer Anthony Armstrong-Jones (Matthew Goode).

[84] Richter wrote the score to Infra as part of a Royal Ballet-commissioned collaboration with choreographer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie.

[87] Crystal Pite has also choreographed a ballet to Richter's Vivaldi Recomposed, titled The Seasons' Canon, which premiered at the Opera National de Paris in 2016.

Richter worked on a project based on Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings and Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and made a ballet with artist Idris Khan.

The composer has also collaborated with digital art collective Random International on two projects, contributing scores to the installations Future Self (2012),[93] staged at the MADE space in Berlin, and Rain Room (2012/13) at London's Barbican Centre[94] and MOMA, in New York.