Erik Satie’s Gymnopédies (er, “nude dances”) are everywhere in the culture—in film soundtracks, “classical chillout” compilations, splayed over beats, interpolated by Janet Jackson, covered by Gary Numan. Pigeonholed in the popular imagination as an ambient progenitor, Satie did create a sort of background music—he called it “furnishing music” and these pieces prefigure the music of Philip Glass and Steve Reich in their minimalism. The Gymnopédies weren’t composed as background music, but the label has stuck—perhaps reflecting more on our modes of listening than the intentions of the composer.

Satie was a quite a character—besides the well-known works for solo piano, he worked with Diaghilev and Picasso on a ballet, engaged in numerous practical jokes, wrote extensively (citing Cromwell as an influence), and pushed musical forms to their limits: his Vexations consists of a theme and chords with instructions to repeat 840 times. Pianist Ai Onoda undertook a performance last year in Tokyo lasting over twenty hours. So if it's not quite correct to say that Satie is having a "moment", there certainly are lot of interesting Satie-related things going on right now, from Ian Penman's fascinating study (out now from Fitzcarraldo Editions), to the record at hand.

LA’s In Sheep’s Clothing Hi-Fi have been on the Satie tip for a bit – check out their ace list of electronic Satie covers from a few years ago here and “Gymnopédie '99” is their first archival release. Originally a 1998 Japan-only CD, synth master and composer Mitsuto Suzuki cast his net over the Satie oeuvre, taking in not only the Gymnopédies but Vexations and some of the “furnishing music” as well. The reimaginings are a tapestry of genres and tempos—downtempo/chill, 90s Warp Records bleep, piano/spoken word. It’s all very fresh, and never boring. Open-minded in the best sense, the collaborations bring out the free-spirit of 90s globalism—Silvio Anastacio’s lovely Portuguese vocal on Gymnopédie #1.

Gymnopédie '99 is out 27 June and available direct from In Sheep’s Clothing and other fine record stores