You can learn and enrich yourself through the process of knowing a different musical culture.
— Ludovico Einaudi
I couldn't find a way to write music with numbers and rules and schedules. So I tried to forget the academic idea of music and started to see if it was possible to do creative work, taking in all the influences I wanted to keep.
I prefer to play in smaller venues because I like the intimacy, the connection with the audience.
I went to Mali for the first time in 2000, and I met Toumani Diabate and Ballake Sissoko - two of the greatest kora players of our time.
I was completely anxious when I was young.
All my life, my heart has felt closer to rock n' roll.
I like to keep changing because discovery is always interesting.
I think what really stays with me is the idea that you can write music about the texture of a wall, and everything is in some way connected.
I am very happy to be able to cross borders to go to China, to Mexico, to America, everywhere, and there is an instant understanding of what I do. This is incredibly beautiful because you've suddenly communicated with everyone without speaking the same language. The language of music is able to go anywhere.
My music comes from my personal background.
I wanted to be a rocker and photographer and tour the world!
Now anybody can make music at home, and you can hear music on any computer without having to buy it. Everything is apparently better with all the machines we have now, but at the same time, the quality of life is not improving.
On every new project, I try to write in a different way and see if there's a new side of myself I haven't explored.
I don't like the idea of 'classical crossover,' even if sometimes I see this category given to what I'm doing.
You can put the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in the same category, but the types of music, the colors each band evokes, are completely different. It's the same with Mozart and Beethoven - they express two very different aspects of music.
I don't crave acceptance in the classical world.
