From Kenny G's Popular Guide to Unpopular Music:

The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie:
When John Cage used to complain that Erik Satie's music was rarely played with the seriousness with which the composer intended, he must have had this record in mind. This marijuana-blasted hippie crew make Space Age Bachelor Pad mincemeat out of Satie; they go so far as to invoke Satie's spirit hoping to share a bong with him. Highlights include "Sports & Divertissements" and liner notes of such horrendous quality that would instantly qualify for WFMU's LCD feature "Liner Notes of The Gods." Bonus: this record is available at every flea market in the world for a buck.

<not entirely satisfied by this review, I decided to press the G-man a little further>
me:
Do you have any affection for the music itself? Or did you just include this review as a curiosity? (To me, a "marijuana-blasted hippie crew making Space Age Bachelor Pad mincemeat" sounds pretty promising.)
he:
Um, yes and no. It's pretty damn goofy stuff, and pretty irreverent even to an irreverent old coot like Satie. I think it's a goof. It's cool in a campy sort of a way, but I prefer my Satie straight up!!!

Fanfare Jan/Feb 81, J.D.:

The Music of Erik Satie: Velvet Gentleman.
Gymnopédies, Heures séculaires et instantanées, Avant-dernières pensées, Passacaille, Gnossiennes, Nocturnes, Embryons desséchés, Enfantillages pittoresques, Peccadilles importunes, Pièces froides
London Jubiliee JL 41063

This would appear to be a reissue on London's new budget label of one of a pair of discs <actually three> devoted to Satie's music and available until recently - if not still - on the Deram label. If so, it is also a disc I had often picked up and mused about purchasing for many a year - but put off doing so because the contents, or the approach to them, seemed suspicious. That's '70's or '60's smartass approach to annotation, for instance; the odd instrumental combinations apparently applied - moog synthesizer, along with solo work by William Bennett (flute), Derek Wickens (oboe), Tom Kelly (clarinet), and Roland Marker (guitar).

I needn't have worried. Purists that I think I am (yet inconsistent enough to have trouble with "authentic-instrument" recordings), I didn't want to hear a composer I am fond of meddled with. Yet Satie invites such meddling; it is basic to his own compositional practices. And whatever is momentarily startling about these chamber-orchestra arrangements of Satie's piano pieces very quickly turns to a sense of aptness: Satie would surely have liked what the Camarata group does with his outrageously named pieces (I have them untranslated for the sake of the serendipity of our readers.) How shall I sum up? Here: If we can bear what Ravel does to Mussorgsky, we can enjoy Camarata's Satie's-faction. Quite decent Dutch pressings, with probably useless aforementioned annotation <with many typos.>

1986 Penguin Guide :

The Music of Erik Satie: Velvet Gentleman
Rather nicely sub-titled 'The Velvet Gentleman" after Satie's mode of dress during his "Bohemian" period, this collection needs to be approached with some caution. The Camarata players are expert instrumentalists and they show a natural response to this music, particularly the lyrical pieces which are given a melancholy languor that readily communicates. The scoring is free and includes a synthesizer, often used very effectively - but not always without a degree of (probably intended) vulgarity.

The reviewers sure didn't like what Camarata did with Parade; it was a little too annoying and improper for them. I like it, it's done in the spirit of the original performance:


Fanfare Jul/Aug 85, J.D.:

The Music of Erik Satie: Through a Looking Glass.
Gymnopédies 1, Gnossiennes, Le fils des étoiles, Sarabandes, Parade - Ballet Réaliste, Deux Préludes Posthumes (arr. Poulenc), Camarata: Through a Looking Glass London 414 083-1

At the time I reviewed London Jubilee's first release of Camarata versions of Erik Satie's music, The Velvet Gentleman, I wondered whether that disc's successor would also come out on London's budget line. Now it has, and even if you accept the notion that I proposed in my earlier piece - namely, that Satie might well have appreciated what Camarata does with his music and in his name - you will have to ask yourself this time whether Camarata has carried things too far. Perhaps not in the Side 1 orchestrations of piano pieces, for these are in the spirit of the first album and in one case the orchestrations are familiar ones carried out by Francis Poulenc. But Side 2 contains not only a Camarata fantasy on Satie's themes, but a reading of Parade that takes considerable liberties with Satie's original. Granted, Satie himself included extra-musical sounds in his score, but he did so in the interest of a plot line which has been altered and updated by such Camarata additions as a section of disco rock, a strip episode, the sounds of men at prayer, the recorded voices of Hitler and FDR (which does tend to equate the two), and the explosion of an atomic bomb. Well, you may find all of this amusing and even what they used to call, when the album was first produced, "relevant"; and you never know when you're going to need a good A-bomb noise to entertain the guests. The disc's sound holds up fairly well, though there is some session noise here and there. So if none of the above scares you off, by all means buy this disc and enjoy yourself.
<talks about the many typos and inaccuracies in the liner notes>

London/Decca 411 839

Parade: The Eccentric Erik Satie This LP packaged the Bernard Herrmann recordings of Satie with Parade by Camarata. Why not?

Gramophone, Dec 84, Brief review of "Parade: The Eccentric Erik Satie":

...the remainder of the the LP is taken up by an unacceptable performance of Parade by a group described as "Camarata and Instrumentalists."  Moreover Camarata have added to the special effects. Satie intended various natural sounds to be laminated on to his score (a typewriter, a pistol shot, a siren.) Camarata's cavalier arrangement has gone one better in interpolating the atom bomb, a jet plane, crowd noises, including a chorus reciting The Lord's Prayer, night-club strippers' music, and even the voice of Hitler! The performance of the music itself is somewhat labored and this cannot be taken seriously as an authentic version.

Penguin 86, probably the same reviewer:

In its version of Parade, Camarata has updated the special efffects (which Satie intended to be laminated on to the score); besides the authentic pistol-shot, typewriter and siren, he has added a jet plane, crowd noises, plus a chorus reciting the Lord's Prayer, night-club strippers' music, the voice of Hitler, and even the atom bomb!  The performance of the music itself is labored. Of novelty value only.

Comments from discussion group:

I recently obtained an album called "The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie," which appears to be a sort of Switched-on Satie: Satie pieces on synthesizer, dating from the early 70s. It's truly weird. Anyone else know about this album, and who, in a rush of blood to the head, authorized its release?

A while back I found an LP in a used record shop called "The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie" by the Camarata Contemporary Chamber Orchestra. It is excellent, similar to "Switched-On Bach," but on this record the moog synthesizer is only one of many instruments. There are some great arrangements of Satie's work. The album probably came out in the early '70s. There are two other electronic Satie albums listed on the jacket, "The Velvet Gentleman" (Deram #DES 18036) and "Through A Looking Glass" (Deram #DES 18052). Does anybody have these albums? If so, I'd like to hear from you! I'm greatly interested in French Impressionist piano music, especially Francis Poulenc, whose "Suite Franciase" would be appreciated by any Satie fan.

The Camarata Contemporary Chamber Orchestra - "The Velvet Gentleman". Beautifull record! ... It's orchestrated with strings, woodwinds but also with some funny electronic instruments ... has the Gymnopedies arranged for guitar, strings, woodwinds and some light percussion effects ....
-AF

Hello friends of Satie. I want to tell Andrès that I've got the record he is looking for, "The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie". Maybe I can make you a copy on cassette. On the other hand, I would love to have a tape with the interpretation of de Leew... oups! My address is myriamc@cam.org Bye!