Audiopile Review: In Sheep’s Clothing, the LA record shop, label and local hub, step into the reissue game, a noble first effort that shines a light on Electric Satie’s CD-only release, Gymnopédie ’99, an ambitious project helmed by Mitsuto Suzuki, best known in the video game world for his Final Fantasy soundtracks. A scarcely heard gem plucked from one of the further corners of Japan’s notoriously abundant and wildly varied ‘90s CD era (recently given a handy overview via Music From Memory), Gymnopédie ’99, as the title nods at, is largely set around reinterpreting select compositions from the legendary Erik Satie. But this isn’t quite the minimalist venture that that may conjure, Suzuki traversing everything from bossa nova, IDM, downtempo, and smooth jazz, in an effort to modernize Satie’s sacred melodies within a hybrid of liquid grooves and breezy instrumentation. While rooted in Satie, Suzuki also draws on his home country’s recent past, at times recalling the globally minded future jazz of Nobukazu Takemura’s Child’s View or the balearic tones of Horoumi Hosono’s pre-City Pop classic Tropical Dandy. And, of course, Japan’s Environmental Music plays a big role here, Suzuki implanting a soft touch of synthetic melodies and intertwining glassy percussion to those lush enviros of placid piano and drifting ambiance. While there are plenty of better known albums from the same scene and era, the originals going for way more money and coming with larger footprints online, we have to give massive props to ISC for taking a chance on a relatively obscure album as their first reissue.

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In Sheep’s Clothing is excited to announce our first reissue project: Electric Satie, 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 II” 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. On this critically acclaimed release, Suzuki harnesses a unique mix of drum machines, synthesizers, live percussion, soprano saxophone, piano, and spoken word to craft a lush and vividly futuristic sound world.