Electric Satie was a one-off conceptual project by acclaimed Japanese electronic music producer Mitsuto Suzuki. Originally released on CD-only in 1998, »Gymnopédie ’99« reimagines Erik Satie’s beloved piano compositions in electronic form ranging sonically from downtempo bossa-nova (featuring Brazilian percussionist Marco Bosco and vocalist Silvio Anastacio) to freestyle ambience and chillout room IDM, not far from the music featured on Music from Memory’s Virtual Dreams or Warp Record’s Artificial Intelligence.

A deeply imaginative composer and arranger, Suzuki was inspired early on by Yellow Magic Orchestra to develop his own style of synthesizer music. Suzuki’s first releases include 1994’s »Voices Of Planet«, an acid techno set under his ARP-2600 moniker, and »Medium Feedback«, which was included on Haruomi Hosono’s 1996 »Daisy World Tour« compilation album.

On »Electric Satie«, Suzuki harnesses a unique mix of drum machines, synthesizers (Prophet 5, Memorymoog, PPG Wave, Juno 106, JX-8P, nord modular & nordlead, AKAI & Emu samplers), live percussion, soprano saxophone, piano, and spoken word to craft a lush and vividly futuristic sound world.