Erik Satie S/D

after listening almost exclusively to horror soundtracks for 6 or 7 weeks i pulled up Satie's piano works on youtube before bed last weekend as a palate cleanser. these pieces aren't new to me but i've become obsessed with them in a way i haven't been with any other music in a long time. it's singular and internet boards are littered with threads by people looking for something else to sratch the same itch; other than some blatant copycats it doesn't exist because nothing else has that same free-floating feel to it. i think Saloli nailed it:

I ended up playing most of the Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes (his most popular works) throughout my tenure as a Eurythmy accompanist, and I began to notice that although it seems like the music is predictable and repetitive, none of the phrases resolved when I expected them to, and many of them began before the previous phrase was even over.

For example, at the beginning of Gnossiene No. 3, Satie sets up an expectation by playing the A minor chord twice and the E minor chord twice. A normal composer would do this again the exact same way, but Satie decides to replace the last E minor chord with the D minor chord (surprise!), which acts as the beginning of the next phrase. The effect is almost like an Escher staircase; you take the stairs up to the top, but you arrive on the side.

I came away from the experience thinking that Satie really is a clever, witty composer, and not at all boring. In fact, the musical result of this compositional style is extremely pleasant and meditative, a ticklish elixir that suspends time and expectations so that the listener achieves catharsis while being liberated from persistent and predictable cadences.

https://www.self-titledmag.com/saloli-reflects-on-the-revelatory-furniture-music-of-erik-satie/

i grabbed a bunch of 2cd Piano Works sets off soulseek, including Ciccolini and Roge (whose 2CD Debussy on Decca I like a lot), but ended up preferring the one I found on Youtube, Hakon Austbo, over all of them.

Anne queffelec is my favorite Satie pianist if you’re lookin. She did 2 discs worth which are now in a big box set of her complete recordings

Can you guys be specific about which Debussey & Satie CDs you're recommending? Catalogue number and title? I find it really hard to find classical discs with just a vague description.

My favorite collection of Debussy orchestral work remains this one, mostly conducted by Bernard Haitink in the '70s. For piano music I'm most familiar with Walter Gieseking, whose recordings are from the mono era but have a lovely ambiance; they've been reissued/remastered/repackaged many times (here's a recent one). These recordings were Penguin Guide favorites in the late '90s editions I used to have.

For Satie, I like Thibaudet: https://www.discogs.com/release/9524909-Erik-Satie-Jean-Yves-Thibaudet-The-Complete-Solo-Piano-Music
For Debussy's "Suite Bergamasque," I like Seong-Jin Cho: https://www.discogs.com/master/1373955-Debussy-Seong-Jin-Cho-Images-Childrens-Corner-Suite-Bergamasque-Lisle-Joyeuse

I haven't heard Roge's Debussy or Queffelec's Satie - thanks for the recommendations!

https://www.discogs.com/master/399109-Erik-Satie-Anne-Queffélec-Erik-Satie

https://www.discogs.com/master/1513970-Erik-Satie-Anne-Queffélec-Catherine-Collard-Oeuvres-Pour-Piano-Piano-Works

Debussy is my favorite composer and it’s better not to get me started.

Those links didn’t come out right…

Piano Music of Erik Satie Vol. 1 was the LP my high school friends and I listened to: these are some of the 60s Ciccolini tracks that Jon L. xpost prefers to his 80s re-dos, so maybe we hit it lucky. Way before Discreet Music and so on, they just seemed like tiny landscapes, always eventful and atmospheric, sometimes concisely challenging. That copy was in mono; the stereo didn't have quite the same effect (heard much later, though).

https://ecm-server.de/audio/00289481/0028948117963/Cover_1000.webp

not all Satie, but this one is just so perfect

For a second I was wondering about Kim Kardashian's connection to Satie...

!

Gotta shout out Reinbert DeLeeuw, whose recordings of Satie's piano music are notoriously slow; his first Gymnopedie alone clocks in at 6 minutes. Music for deep meditation.

This is the compilation to hear: https://www.discogs.com/master/523528-Erik-Satie-The-Early-Piano-Works

Kim kashkashian rules

Wow that Rothko Chapel album looks amazing. Thanks, calzino!

honestly, it really is amazing and has never ceased to amaze me any less after years of listening to it.

or something like that!

One of two feldmans I’ve been lucky enough to see performed (the other - patterns in a chromatic field)

appreciate these wonderful recommendations

The surprise highlight of that Rothko Chapel CD is the Cage piano piece, almost monochrome yet completely gripping, a lot less dense than the famous Satie pieces.

I think the contrasts between t'other 2 composers and Satie is something that works really good on that recording

http://www.yoshioojima.com/works/music/1258/

https://wereleasewhateverthefuckwewantrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wave-notation-3-erik-satie-1984

xpost to the St. Giga thread possibly, there's more

i know those Morton Feldman Rothko Chapel pieces (they rule) but not this comp.