UK Industrial Act THE ROYAL RITUAL Interprets Erik Satie With The Haunting, “Gnossienne No. 1.”
UK Industrial act THE ROYAL RITUAL (David Lawrie) returns with a modern take on Erik Satie’s haunting solo piano composition, “Gnossienne No. 1.”
Officially forming the B-Side of “Empires”, this interpretation of Satie’s seminal work is in-keeping with the dissonance, space, and expressiveness of the A-Side.
The production was built around a live piano performance by Lawrie, showcasing his classical training.
About the decision to explore Satie:
“Erik Satie has been a staple in my pool of influences since I was a teenager. Whilst he was a paragon of parody and contrary, he was clearly a mad man. Even though much of his work was, indeed, nonsensical in its conception, there is such a strong sense of haunting loneliness – but also hope and irony – written through it, like a stick of Whitby Rock."
“I have always felt like I am on the fringes, looking in. As an Englishman in the USA, this sense of being “the outsider” was compounded further. My own feelings of affinity with artists like Satie has grown stronger over the years, and I wanted to see if I could inject some of my own expressiveness into the space between the notes"
About the video:
The accompanying video is simply a documentation of the live piano performance, as it was recorded late 2020, with no splices or editing.