Satie: Fragments

Deutsche Grammophon presents Fragments, a groundbreaking series celebrating music past and present, by inviting some of today's most innovative artists to rework the creations of earlier influential composers. Fragments begins by focusing on the music of eccentric French genius Erik Satie, forefather of modern minimalism and an enduring influence almost a century after his death.

"When we set out to find artists to work on Satie's music, the idea was met with unanimous enthusiasm," says Marc Fritsch, Director Special Projects at Deutsche Grammophon. "This has led to an original and eclectic collection of remixes and reworks. Fragments moves between different creative worlds - classical and electronic, online and offline, old and new. It brings together different artforms and gives musicians the opportunity to engage with timeless traditions of making music in ways that are sure to be surprising, stimulating and satisfying, just as Satie's compositions were when they were new."

Fragments celebrates the innovation of the contemporary electronic music scene and the openness of its artists to create collaborations with other artforms. This first release in the series reflects the breadth of Satie's avant-garde artistic universe, which spanned everything from regular work as a cabaret pianist and commissions as a popular songwriter to creating atmospheric miniatures such as the Pièces froides, collaborating with Picasso, Cocteau and Diaghilev on the ballet Parade and writing one of the earliest film scores, for René Clair's surrealist Entr'acte.