Over his three decade career, Italy’s Ludovico Einaudi has become one of the world’s most celebrated and well regarded pianists and composers. From his award-winning scores of Luce dei miei occhi and Sotto falso nome putting him in an enviable category alongside fellow Italian composers like Morricone, to his debut in the Western cinematic world with This Is England and a slew of his own material, including the 2013 release In a Time Lapse, Einaudi has been nothing short of prolific.
Briefly in Australia last year for GRAPHIC festival, Einaudi will be returning to Australia this week for his first tour of the country. Though it was brief – just three days – his memories of the first trip down under are a positive one, “It was my first time to Australia and it was very nice for me to come. Everything was very condensed, but your country was very welcoming and nice. I have very beautiful memories of the concert and the audience at the Sydney Opera House”.
As for what we can expect for this run of shows, Einaudi commented on his joy at bringing his current tour to Australia, “I’m very happy to come back, even if this time it’s going to be more days but at opposite ends of the country, so it’ll be very short in each city! About a day and a half and then onto the next. The performance will be with seven musicians around the pianos, cello, violin, percussion and electronics. I will be playing music from In a Time Lapse, my latest record and my previous repertoire.”
“The group (of seven musicians) works well together, because last year we played 120 concerts. So we know eah other very well. It’s very nice to play with this group for me because we can experiment every night, little changes and explore it and change it here and there. And so everyone that comes to these concerts is experiencing this connection on stage, and that’s very nice for them and for me.”
Einaudi is a man who has never seemed to stop making music since his first releases in the mid-1980s, so I asked him what inspires him to keep making new music, what challenges him along the way, and how he feels his latest record compares to his previous works.
“Of course every record is for me, it’s a different episode of my creativity and it’s like I try always to achieve something different and explore something different. So if you compare this record (In a Time Lapse) to the previous one, the sound is is quite different. I think sometimes it can be a risk to change things and try new things and to fulfill new ideas… but of course I do not like the idea of keeping working on one sound.”
“There are probably parts that are unique to my style, but I try to find unique parts, new sounds, new experiences… I look at the power of the emotions – we have strong emotions from very basic things around us. The experience of the rain can be very powerful, as can the experience of the wind. I think you can think about the experience of those elements and hear those elements inside the music.”
This led me to the ineviable question of technology, and how the developments in digital music and editing software has influenced the way we writes his music. Though he uses computers for his compositions, he goes on to reinforce the importance of the pencil:
“Well of course I use much more with the computer and I experiment with sound through it. And even the form of the music, working with the computer it’s a different technique of composition because you can now experiment with things before you record it. You can experiment around the pieces and experiment different forms. The nice thing with a computer you can make a sort of global idea of the perception of the music before you record it. It’s not exactly the same perception as to when you perform the music with other musicians, but you can get an idea of the form of the music, and this can give you a sort of a starting point. I enjoy very much the process of working between the piano, my pencil, the computer. The pencil is important it’s very nice also to work with the details of the music … act of making changes, erasing, it’s a very beautiful connection you have…”
And as for his work on screen, I ask him what makes him choose one project over another, as he has one of the most diverse collections of film and television compositions in the industry – everything from J. Edgar and I’m Still Here to the Ricky Gervais series Derek, Stargate: Universe and the highly acclaimed French film Intouchables.
“Sometimes it’s the story, sometimes it’s the relationship you establish with the director. It’s a combination of things that makes me choose one project over another. I’m glad I don’t do this too much, I find this much more exhausting to compose for film than to work for myself and for my concerts, because there’s always a relationship with the production team that never stops. You have to get the details really right…”
And for a man who never stops working, what comes next, after his Australian tour? “I will have a bit more time for composing, I have a new project for a french film coming the Spring. And I have another project between a concert and an installation I’m doing on Edgar Allan Poe in Italy in the Summer. And then there’ll be some concerts again. I’m also happy to think about more projects for the next year and focus on some new idea for my next record. It’s a very big year.”
Don’t miss Ludovico Einaudi in his first Australian tour, kicking off tomorrow at Perth Festival, ahead of Sunday night, February 9th at the Sydney Opera House, the 11th at Adelaide’s Festival Theatre and 13th at the Arts Centre in Melbourne. More details can be found on the AU HERE. In a Time Lapse is available now.
