Perhaps French composer Eric Satie’s Gymnopedies are some of the earliest pop songs. Perhaps they are even less than this; pop for certain, but barely songs. Simply a few tones, swinging in space, at once heartwarming, calming, yet melancholic: distant yet near.
Music that the ›velvet gentleman‹ Satie himself always understood as ambient. At the same time, Satie’s pieces remain grounded, furniture for us yet today; just as the Gymnopedie were early compositions for public space, ISAN assigns them to places of the present. This means that rather than simply remixing or covering Satie’s originals, Robin Saville and Antony Ryan have thoughtfully reworked Satie’s melodies, placing a few typical ISAN-Ingredients around them. Their sounds ring and linger-remaining thoughtful, emotional, minimal.
