Ludovico Einaudi releases a special 12-track digital collection, 12 Songs From Home, via Decca Records. Recorded at home on his own upright piano in one evening during the Covid-19 lockdown, the release follows several live streams that were watched by thousands of people at a time on his Instagram page...

If you don't know the background to this album, the end result sounds like a bootleg recording made by Einaudi's cleaner, who left a recording device on in the pianists flat while he plays in private.

The truth, however, isn't wildly different from this, as Einaudi explains: "I recorded 12 Songs From Home between March and April 2020 during the peak of Italy’s lockdown. In March I started to play live concerts regularly on social media. Switching on my phone to connect for 30-40 minutes with the world has been a beautiful and intimate alternative to the spring tour that I regrettably had to postpone. This new release is the memory of those home live concerts, my memory of this time, the memory of a strange and new atmosphere that we won’t forget."

In March, Einaudi released an ‘At Home’ video for Greenpeace on his official Facebook page, dedicated to his fans. After the huge response to his self-broadcasts, Einaudi felt inspired to record this special set on his iPhone. It features some of the best-known works from Einaudi’s career including 2004’s ‘Nuvole Bianche’, ‘Ascent’ from his mammoth Seven Days Walking project last year and ‘Elegy for the Arctic’, released in 2018 to highlight Greenpeace’s climate change campaign.

A few of the tracks here are from Day One of his Seven Days Walking series ('A Sense of Symmetry', 'Ascent' and 'Gravity'), which shows the pianists, not to mention fans, fondness for that release.

It's a wonderfully personal album, that just gets better the more you hear it. The quality of the recording might not be up to studio standard, but then this is a raw and personal love letter to his millions of fans.

01 - A Sense of Symmetry
02 - Oltremare
03 - Berlin Song
04 - Tu Sei
05 - Elegy for the Arctic
06 - Ascent
07 - Gravity
08 - Nuvole Bianche
09 - Le Onde
10 - High Heels
11 - The Earth
12 - Prelude Walk

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Nick Smithson