There's a fine line drawn between "calming" and "boring".
Italian contemporary pianist Ludovico Einaudi teeters back & forth between the two on 2004's Una Mattina. With each track you pretty much get where it's going within 45 seconds but I suppose that's minimalism for you. Here we focus more on whether or not Einaudi can convincingly pull of the impact or emotion through each polyphonic melody and arpeggio he plucks away at. For the most part, he succeeds in allowing the listener to get lost in tranquil thought, however it occasionally comes off as contrived and predictably bland. The highlights are when a subtle cello comes in serving as a backbone to the composition allowing the piano to stop and breathe for brief moments with intoxicating results.
3½ mornings out of 5
Songs Of Note: Dietro Casa; DNA
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