Satie For Two Guitars

Obscure, and often ridiculed during his lifetime, Erik Satie, the most unusual protagonist of the early 20th century French avant-garde, has transcended cult status and is now a composer whose modernity is at last appreciated. Satie's inimitable, bare and serenely objective music was largely neglected until the eclectic 1960s and '70s when such pioneering figures as John Cage, who was enthralled by the composer's desire to tear up the rule-book, to embrace the absurd and the surreal, and to blend low and high art, and Brian Eno, who proclaimed Satie to be "the first ambient composer", fell under his spell. On hearing French pianist Jean-Joël Barbier's recordings of Satie, Peter Kraus realised the possibilities of transcribing the music for the classical guitar. Peter began with the Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes for solo guitar. The greater complexity of such works as the Pièces Froids led him to transcribe for two guitars, inviting fellow Los Angeles guitarist Mark Bird to collaborate. Experimentation and revision ensued with "Satie for Two Guitars" the impressive result. In this edition, Satie for Two Guitars is complimented by an intensely coloured, very French recording of the composer's music for the controversial ballet Parade in a performance by the conductor Louis Fremaux with the Orchestre National de l'Opera de Monte Carlo.