The Prophet of Ambient Music

Elizabeth Alker presents three new commissions inspired by the music and the ideas of Erik Satie (1866-1925). Best known today for iconic, laconic piano pieces like the Gymnopédies and the Gnossiennes, Satie often entered into experimental and expansive territory. He pioneered the idea of “furniture music” - compositions that were intended not to be listened to, so paving the way for the ambient genres that have followed; and his Vexations, which lasts for hours, asks a solo piano player to play a single theme 840 times without a break.

To close Radio 3’s weekend of Satie celebrations, Unclassified presents three new pieces created exclusively for the show courtesy of Manchester’s purveyor of playful electronic music Carmel Smickersgill, Yorkshire pianist-improviser Matthew Bourne and guitarist-composer Rafiq Bhatia of Son Lux.

"Before I compose a piece, I walk around it several times, accompanied by myself.”
~ Erik Satie

Produced by Geoff Bird
A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3

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