Max Richter's olfactory and hypnotic notes: "Perfume, like music, short-circuits your consciousness to infuse more deeply."

On the edge of a forest stretching over nearly 12 hectares, in the heart of Oxfordshire, a former alpaca farm has been transformed into an artistic oasis. The immense shed has been pierced with floor-to-ceiling windows, and the animals and tractors have given way to vast living spaces and photography and music studios used for short residencies by young artists. The jazz group Portico Quartet, composer Alex Groves, Estonian violinist Maarja Nuut, and trans London poet and singer Campbell King have all stopped at this creative space, less than an hour from London, since January.

When he's not performing in Los Angeles, Istanbul, Tokyo, or Madrid, it's here, in his bright studio, that you can find Max Richter, co-owner of the place with his wife, the Hungarian-born visual artist Yulia Mahr. "This is the place where I spend the most time," admits the German-British composer one June morning, pointing through the screen at his Yamaha piano and a Moog Music System 55 synthesizer. A haven where he composes, records, researches, and tinkers.

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