On Saturday I was invited to broadcast 12 hours of Eric Satie’s vexations with live performances all night from midnight.
The first ultra minimalist tonal piece performed with piano lasting an hour put me on edge except I was sitting by the window and could smell freshly baked bread from the bakerie below.
The second hour long piece was performed as a human clock counting each second to a tonal ping for each 10 second interval
My eyes started following wires in the room and then considered how pianos seem to look like coffins.
Finally as he started to pass the hour I felt fear that he would continue all night however he finally wound down.
I started to believe that Satie’s piece was like the emporers clothes with everybody believing they witnessed something because they were afraid to seem stupid. Certainly the next 6 hours consisted of the artists doing very little. I thought they were probably sleeping with their eyes open.
However Satie apparently wrote the piece (but never performed it) after a relationship breakup. And it seems that it was meant to create a moment of silence in life for contemplation and all the subsequent reactions that this entails.
The problem for me was that this kind of experiential and immersive piece does not really transmit very well for radio.
You must be logged in to post a comment.