The project around Vexations was initiated by Wataru Iwata in 2021, following a performance of Erik Satie’s piece in which the required 840 repetitions were performed in full. Since a complete performance can last 15 to 20 hours and is difficult to present as a single recording, Iwata developed the idea of involving 21 different artists, each recording the piece 40 times. Together, the 21 contributions would add up to Satie’s 840 repetitions, with one volume released each week over 21 weeks.
 

Each artist was free to choose their own instruments, tempo, arrangement and recording method. This open structure created the possibility of approaching Satie’s material in radically different ways while still remaining connected to the original concept of Vexations. For our contribution, we were particularly interested in looking beyond the repetitive, almost ambient quality that is often associated with Satie and focusing instead on his more absurd, excessive and contradictory side. Satie was not only concerned with repetition and simplicity, but also with satire, absurdism and the collision of very different musical ideas.
 

For our contribution, Esther Kretzinger and I, working together as the duo REER PROJECT, decided not to simply record the piece 40 times in the conventional sense. Instead, we used the repeated theme as the basis for a new composition. My contribution focused particularly on the overall musical structure and on the way the theme develops throughout the piece. I wanted the repetition to become a kind of journey, beginning at an almost absurdly slow pace and gradually accelerating while passing through very different moods and musical worlds.
 

The stylistic contrasts emerged largely from my work with the Augmented Violin. Elements of jazz, techno, avant-garde and electroacoustic music appear alongside one another, sometimes in sharp contrast. The violin is processed through several analogue and digital effect chains, allowing the same instrument to produce very different sonic characters. These sounds became part of the musical structure itself rather than simply functioning as electronic effects added to the violin.

We also incorporated processed voice and fragments of Satie’s writings, including material connected with his fictional Metropolitan Church of Art of Jesus the Conductor. These elements bring Satie’s absurdist and satirical side into the composition and reinforce the sense of an unpredictable journey through different musical worlds.
 

For me, the central idea was that the extreme repetition of Vexations should not simply remain repetition. It could become a framework within which almost anything could happen. The gradual acceleration, the changes of mood and the collision of different musical languages turn Satie’s simple recurring material into something that constantly transforms while remaining recognisable at its core.

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