Erik Satie

[upbeat jazz music]

[upbeat jazz music][instrumental music] That was French pianist and composer Jacques Loussier with his trio doing his jazz interpretation of Gnossienne No. 1 by Erik Satie.

He released dozens and dozens of records in, from the 1960s till his death in 2019.

He covered a lot of Bach and Beethoven and other classical composers, including that very restrained Satie.

Before Jacques Loussier was Eugen Cicero from Romania doing a swing jazz version of Bach's Badinerie, which means to jest or to tease, which certainly matches the lightness of that tune.

We're back in a jiffy with two more classical composers.

A work titled Desiccated Embryos bears some need of explanation.

This is a short piano piece by Eric Satie, written in 1913.

Satie wrote the work after viewing images of embryos of ancient crustaceans.

He then wrote three short movements, each inspired by a different type of crustacean.

I'm your host, Denise Finnegan-Hill.

This next work is titled Desiccated Embryos, which bears some need of explanation.

This is a short piano piece by Eric Satie, composed in 1913.

Satie wrote the work after viewing images of embryos of ancient crustaceans.

My brother and I started at five.

And I loved playing Kabaleski and Satie.

I mean, I was good at it.

It sounded good.

The drum head, right? Mitch or Mike, that's my favorite one, guys.

Much like Treasure of a Man, for me, it's the drum head and that wonderful speech about Admiral Satie or Judge Satie and it pisses off Gene Simmons.

How dare you speak my father's voice? Sorry, guys.

I got to mention it.

And my name is Di Cousens and this has been the 3CR Spoken Word Program.

And we'll just go out with a track from Van Diemen's band with Ensemble Kabul and the CD Where Everything Is Music and a part of their interpretation of Eric Satie's Nociennes.

so so Thank you.

Then the musicians start to play.

piano plays softly The composer of the music is Eric Satie.

Tonight was the world's first taste of something he was calling furniture music.

Satie wanted his music to shape the feeling of a space without superimposing the music onto it.

Here's how he described it.

A music which will be part of the noises of the environment.

I think of it as melodious, softening the noises of the knives and forks at dinner, not imposing itself.

It would fill up those heavy silences that sometimes fall between friends dining together.