Crooked Dances

Though Brian Eno is usually considered the father of ambient music, its philosophical origins begin with Erik Satie. In 1917, he began work composing his Furniture music series, which were designed to be an ignorable ambiance rather than a performance that demanded your attention. The compositions were short and meant to be repeated indefinitely, including instruction for the type of setting they were envisioned to be played in. (“At a bistro,” “in a vestibule,” “during a lunch or civil marriage.”) The Furniture music was only played once during Satie’s lifetime, on March 8, 1920, at the Galerie Barbazanges in Paris. Despite being informed of the experiment, attendees sat and paid close attention the moment the music started, enraging Satie. Derek Baron’s Crooked Dances might be closer to what Satie expected on that day. Baron plays a run through the composer’s Danses Gothiques (1893) and other piano pieces, welcoming the sounds of their New York apartment and the commotion of roommates going about their day. “Go on talking! Walk about! Don’t listen!,” Satie is reported to have shouted to patrons at the Galerie — more than 100 years later, he’s finally being tuned out.