QUIET FAN FOR ERIK SATIE

Julius Eastman, James Tenney, Juraj Vajó

EnsembleSpectrum, conductor Matej Sloboda (SK)

A tribute to a silent icon – and to those who found beauty in going against the grain

Slovak ensemble EnsembleSpectrum presents a program that brings together musical outsiders, sonic rebels and radical visionaries. Julius Eastman, James Tenney and Juraj Vajó – three composers whose music defies convention, discovering beauty in unexpected harmonies and formal extremes.

EnsembleSpectrum has been gaining recognition for its precise performances combined with a fearless approach to exploring alternative sound worlds. This concert is not only a tribute to Erik Satie, but to all artists who seek out new paths in music.

James Tenney: Quiet Fan for Erik Satie

Although Canadian composer James Tenney (1934–2006) is today recognized as one of the key musical thinkers of the 20th century, he spent much of his life in the background – helping others shine. He performed with Philip Glass, Steve Reich and Harry Partch, was active in the Fluxus movement, worked with John Cage, and was among the early pioneers of computer music and just intonation. As a theorist and teacher, his influence was profound.

Tenney deeply admired Erik Satie. In 1965, he was one of the pianists who first performed Vexations, Satie’s proto-minimalist piece from 1893. His own composition Quiet Fan for Erik Satie (1970–71) is both homage and quiet meditation. The title plays with double meaning: a “quiet fan” is both a soft, opening four-note motif – and Tenney himself, a devoted admirer. The piece shares Satie’s aesthetics of simplicity and spaciousness, with slow unfolding phrases and understated clarity. At one moment, Satie’s own melodies emerge in quotation – a gentle reminder of lineage, without imitation.

Tenney once said: “Even when a composer lays all the cards on the table, there is still so much mystery in music.” This piece proves him right.

Julius Eastman: Femenine

Julius Eastman (1940–1990) was a powerful figure in 1970s New York minimalism – a Black, queer, multi-talented musician whose story remains both inspiring and tragic. After his death, many of his original scores were discarded, surviving only through copies kept by close friends. Yet in recent years, his music has resurfaced and gained widespread acclaim.

Eastman’s minimalism is sensuous and physical – closer to pop, rhythm and pulse than to sterile abstraction. He never identified with the label “minimalist.” Instead of returning to the static pulse of early minimalism (like Riley’s In C), Eastman wanted to bring back the beat – groove as a living, breathing form.

His music is organic, evolving. Femenine (1974) exemplifies this: a 70-minute piece for winds, piano, strings and percussion. A glistening vibraphone ostinato forms the spine of the piece, while melodic variations accumulate and transform – through transposition, rhythmic shifts, and subtle improvisation. Constant, unchanging sleigh bells act as the glue. The music grows like a living organism, full of swelling densities and dissolving patterns. It’s hypnotic, haunting, and deeply physical.

Juraj Vajó: Five Songs after Sylvia Plath’s Poetry

Juraj Vajó (*1970) is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Slovak music – a composer and educator known for his originality, conceptual rigor and openness to the unconventional. His scores are often visual works in themselves, using real colors to signify musical parameters. For example, green typically means slow or extremely slow tempo, while blue may indicate articulation or playing style.

Vajó’s work embraces contradiction. Notational freedom is paired with strict compositional detail. Experimental playing techniques coexist with jazz/pop-inspired harmonies. The role of performer is reimagined – shifting between instrumentalist and stage actor.

In Five Songs after Sylvia Plath’s Poetry (2023), these tensions merge into a unified sound world. The cycle – comprising Waltzing Stars, I Am Vertical, Words, Elm and Night Dance – sets Plath’s poems to music that is both lyrical and structurally bold. Born out of a collaboration with a student theatre production during the pandemic, the work reflects Vajó’s “music from the cave” concept: composed with the simplest of tools – pencil, paper, and colored pencils – and yet delivering striking emotional depth.

This is music that invites you to see as much as hear. To feel with both ears and eyes.