Erik Satie Three Piece Suite

Erik Satie, the composer, pianist, and writer, was a significant figure in Belle Époque Paris. Recognised for his consistent attire of a bowler hat, three-piece suit, and umbrella, Satie was a surrealist before Surrealism and a conceptual artist before Conceptual Art. A friend to Cocteau and Debussy, Picabia and Picasso, Satie consistently remained a few steps ahead of his contemporaries at the forefront of modernism. There is hardly a development in post-war music, both classical and popular, that Satie did not anticipate.

Moving from the variety shows of Montmartre's Le Chat Noir to suburban Arcueil, from the Parisian demi-monde to the artistic avant-garde, cult critic Ian Penman's masterful Erik Satie Three Piece Suite offers an exhilarating and playful three-part study of this elusive and endlessly fascinating figure. It has been published to mark the centenary of Satie's death.