New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Following his sold-out, seven-night residency at the Barbican this week, Decca announces the release of 'Seven Days Walking', the climactic seven-volume collection from composer and pianist
Ludovico Einaudi - his most ambitious album project yet. The box set will be released on 27th
September and marks the final stop on Einaudi's intimate journey through the snow-capped Alps.
The No. 1 UK Classical Chart album 'Seven Days Walking: Day 1' became the fastest-streamed album ever from a classical composer in its first week of release. The popularity of his 14th studio album helped Einaudi exceed 2 million streams on release day, and it continued to stream at a record-breaking rate for the next seven days, dominating classical charts across the globe.
Einaudi's "rock god tendencies" (The Telegraph) are evident at the sheer speed at which he sells out concert halls and arenas, delighting audiences with his "intricate and emotive" (CLASH) harmonies and tunes "Coldplay and
Billy Joel would be happy to own" (The Times). Due to the high demand from his legions of fans up and down the country, Einaudi returns later this year bringing his iconic live shows to seven more cities in the UK.
From the plaintive beginnings of 'Day 1' evolve emotive musical themes of contemplation, introspection and reflection. Originally inspired by a winter's walk in the Italian Alps in 2018, Einaudi took a series of polaroid images at points throughout his journey - sparking the idea for a groundbreaking project on a scale never before attempted by a classical artist.
He explains, "In January last year I often went for long walks in the mountains, always following more or less the same trail. It snowed heavily, and my thoughts roamed free inside the storm, where all shapes, stripped bare by the cold, lost their contours and colours. Perhaps that feeling of extreme essence was the origin of this album."
Ludovico Einaudi's music has become some of the most recognisable in the world through its use in films and advertisements, making him the world's most ubiquitous contemporary composer. He has provided music for numerous films including Shane Meadows' 'This Is England' and the TV sequels 'This Is England '86' (for which he earned a BAFTA nomination), 'This Is England '88', and 'This Is England '90'. His music also appears in numerous feature films and trailers, including the
Joaquin Phoenix mockumentary 'I'm Still Here', the French Oscar nominee 'Untouchables' and the multi-award-winning film 'Mommy' by Xavier Dolan, as well as regularly being heard on popular weekly television programmes and high profile adverts. Fans include Nicki Minaj, who walks onstage to his music, Iggy Pop, Tom Hiddleston and Ellie Goulding, but to name a few. Championed by BBC
Radio 1 DJ Greg James, Einaudi's music has been sampled by
Professor Green and remixed by
Mogwai and Starkey. In 2016 the pianist performed on a floating platform in the middle of the Arctic Ocean, specially built by Greenpeace, to raise awareness of global warming.
Einaudi was born in Turin and trained as a classical composer and pianist at the Milan Conservatorio. He studied under
Luciano Berio, one of the most important composers of the twentieth century avant-garde. After some early prestigious commissions in the classical world Einaudi turned his back on what he regarded as an essentially conservative approach to music to embrace his own enthusiasms, which included African, folk and rock music.
