NEW YORK (Top40 Charts/ Doreen D'Agostino Media) - After debuting at No 1 in four European countries, the follow up to the critically acclaimed 'Divenire' release, Ludovico Einaudi's 'Nightbook' is bowing in the U.S. today. Nightbook is, according to Einaudi, a record about the transition between light and dark, between the known and unknown. It is a good metaphor for Einaudi's music itself, a bewitching brew of popular and classical music, made with acoustic piano and subtle electronics, emotional directness and subtle orchestration.
The nocturnal music that became Nightbook started as a response to the work of Anselm Kiefer, the German painter and sculptor whose art often has a mythic, epic quality. Specifically, Nightbook was inspired by Kiefer's Seven Heavenly Palaces, a huge installation piece that Einaudi was invited to perform within in 2006. The grand piano, suddenly dwarfed by the cosmic weight of Kiefer's towers, led Einaudi to compose his most mysterious, hypnotic music to date. The piano is front and center, as usual, but the album draws on both the string textures that made Divenire so popular, and the drums and electronics of his Whitetree project. The latter is an ongoing trio that Einaudi has formed with Robert and Ronald Lippok, the German electronica artists. The electronics on Nightbook often begin with the acoustic sounds of the piano, amplifying and expanding those sounds until they seem to reach into both inner and outer space. The album's opening track, 'In Principio,' would be a lovely piano solo, but with Robert Lippok's electronics, it becomes something haunting and strangely beautiful.
As for the strings and percussion, they add a steadily cycling rhythm that often builds to an ecstatic conclusion, a prime example being the piece 'Eros': this is arena rock for the concert hall. The two 'Snow Preludes' come from a larger series, continuing a centuries-old tradition of composer/pianists creating preludes for their instrument. And 'The Tower,' a title that refers to the original Kiefer installation, has a magical, tremulous quality, thanks to the interplay of the keyboard, tubular bells, and live electronics.
The album also includes a hidden track, which, far from being a novelty or gimmick, turns out to serve an important role. The track is a solo piano version of the title song, 'Nightbook' - a marked departure from the groove-based, percussion-driven version that appears in the main body of the disc. Both have a wistful lyricism, but one, the album version, is full of barely suppressed energy and expectation - wondering, perhaps, what this night will bring; the other is a pensive meditation, the sound of the pre-dawn hours after the book of this night has already been written. Taken together, these two versions of 'Nightbook' offer a tantalizing glimpse into the creative process of one of today's most distinctive musical voices.
iTunes is offering a free bonus track called "Berlin Song" with album purchase, along with two tracks of free digital sheet music for piano enthusiasts.
Amazon.com is offering an exclusive free bonus track called "Tu Sei".
