Ludovico Einaudi at the Roundhouse

The Roundhouse houses and promotes a diverse collection of arts and music events, and is a fitting venue for one of the most eclectic line-ups in the iTunes festival’s history. Last night Camden welcomed Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi on the 17^th night of the festival. The musician is celebrated in the classical community and a headliner at the upcoming Classical Brit awards, but you and I will know him best by his body of work for film and television, in which he has incorporated various other genres such as pop and rock since the mid 90s. Einaudi has contributed to the soundtracks for Black Swan, I’m Still Here, Insidious, This Is England 86, Derek and Intouchables. His latest album, In a Time Lapse, was released in January.

The set opens with what our house music peers would describe as a slow burner, mixing drilling tribal beats with Einaudi’s keys, violin, cello, tambourine and drums. There is a fluidity of sound, the haunting loneliness of the grand piano ebbing effortlessly into guitar and then cello, ever building to a dramatic crescendo. The aural flux extends to the arrangement on stage as members of the ensemble exchange instruments throughout. Notable changes include the mixing desk/bass player and guitarist/violinist. Visuals on the back wall of the Roundhouse match the bouncing lyricism of the often trip-hop music – a ball, or pulsing orb appear in place of a vocalist on stage – hypnotically moving throughout lengthy songs and entrancing the audience. Indeed, no-one seems to notice that the first break in music occurs 25 minutes in to the set, when the Roundhouse crowd finally returns rapturous applause. The sound is uncompromising with few breaks during the set, and the quality is faultless. Einaudi has assembled the perfect cast for his unique variety of dark, menacing narrative sounds.

Einaudi’s music is timeless and last night the power of certain crescendos recalled Arcade Fire, with the odd instrumental percussion of intriguing electronic pioneer Kieran Hebden. If not directly, they must both take influence from Einaudi’s brand of musical cross-genre innovation. 

Katy Thomas
Photos: Niels ten Have

For further information and future events visit Ludovico Einaudi’s website here. 

Watch the video for Walk here: