One of the more pleasant CDs that has drifted across my transom at the Brattleboro Reformer is "Erik Satie:Music from The House with Four Chimneys" by a group of musicians with the mysterious handle of Eddy & The Esoteriks.
Largely the brainchild, I take it, of guitarist Ed Eastridge, the CD features music of Satie transcribed from piano to guitar, mostly, with banjo, mandolin, violin, cello, accordion, flute, harmonica, viola, oboe and voice. Local guitarist Draa Hobbs is one of the musicians on the CD, which is, I suspect, how it got to me. The other musicians are based on the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire and was recoded at Big Mo Records in Thetford.
Satie's music has always intrigued me. It has that particularly "French" sound - open, spare, innovative, minimalist - and Satie was a precursor to and influence on many composers of greater renown who came after him - Debussy, Ravel, Milhaud, Poulenc, even Stravinsky.
Satie's songs, all of which are short in duration, adapt well to guitar and are the ideal soundtrack to those quiet, reflective moments in life. The music leaves plenty of room for you to think.
Equally intriguing are the liner notes, which give you some impression of the sadly beautiful life Satie led. Alone and in abject poverty most of the time, Satie walked every day from his room in the House with Four Chimneys throughout Paris, and the CD is full of music which seems to have grown out of these walks. It is thoughtful and surrounded, yet somewhat insulated from, the hubbub of busy city streets.
This is ideal music for the end of a hard day or a rainy afternoon or a lazy Sunday relaxing with a second cup of coffee and the crossword.
For information on the CD, visit BigMo.com.