Ludovico Einaudi: Le Onde (2LP)

"Le Onde" is the title track of this piano album by Ludovico Einaudi, which was released in Italy back in 1996. In 1996 he achieved his breakthrough with "Le Onde" and, with a little delay, even found his way into the British pop charts in 1998. Einaudi writes: "The idea for Le Onde was to write something inspired by Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves. I was really fascinated by the form of the novel, which is very complex and interesting because some parts are written in italics and others in normal text. The italicized parts are a common thread throughout the book. The book is a description of what people experience during the course of a day, starting with the light of morning, and by the end of the book, night has fallen. Each time the italicized chapters return, you see a different light change on what's happening on the coast.' Inspired by this idea, he started writing all the pieces for Le Onde, but got to a point where he felt there was still one piece missing from the whole picture. I said, 'Yes, Le Onde' is missing, which has the cadence of a wave in its beginning.' The idea was that the music flows and develops by itself, starting from the initial arpeggio, just like a wave that develops in its space, develops because it has to. It's a perpetual movement."