Ludovico Einaudi - Seven Days Walking

A great writing/reading/thinking companion, the first two albums (so far) in Ludovico Einaudi “Seven Days Walking” series – he’s releasing one a month for seven months – are sublime. From the Qobuz write-up:

"After Elements in 2016, Ludovico Einaudi is continuing his exploration of nature with Seven Days Walking, the first opus in a collection of seven albums to be published throughout 2019. His long walks in the Piedmont mountains during the winter of 2017 were the inspiration for these melancholic and hypnotic melodies. The repetitive nature of walking the same routes again and again in this region which he knows like the back of his hand is reflected musically in his most minimalist composition to date. The harshness and chill of the landscape is translated by the stripped-back orchestration (his piano, a violin and a cello), as well as an understated style (especially in A Sense of Simmetry). The serious tone of the music also highlights Einaudi’s activism in favour of the conservation of nature in the face of environmental degradation. In 2016, he shot a video clip on a floating platform in the Arctic Ocean to support Greenpeace’s Save the Arctic campaign.
Recorded in Germany at the end of 2018, Seven Days Walking goes from a delicate and carefree softness (Low Mist, Golden Butterflies) to overwhelming bouts of tension, intensified by masterful crescendos (Gravity, as well as the impressive The Path of the Fossils). Both haunting and elegant, this album once again showcases Einaudi’s talent for musical alchemy as this contemplative journey is a perfect blend of simple, entrancing popular tunes and an orchestral labyrinth more complex than it seems."