Tessa Souter is an artist of such astonishing depth, she seems to breathe underwater. Her readiness to embrace the full spectrum of human feeling, combined with her impressive powers of academic research and a lyrical ability to spin words into mirrors has resulted in a work of true brilliance. Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project, or ESP for short, is a cross-generational collaboration between Souter and Satie which speaks to the truth of grief and love.
The album opens with Yasushi Nakamura on double bass, breaking the silence with a fiery Afro Cuban bass line, shortly joined by Luis Perdomo‘s driving piano and Souter’s bold vocal:
“From a dark and starless sky, when the world was still round, you came, promising the sun and moon and stars above.”
“A Song For You (Gnossienne No.1)”—arranged here by Luis Perdomo—is the piece that gave birth to the entire Erik Satie Project. In 2006 Souter heard French jazz singer Anne DuCros’ wordless interpretation of Gnossienne No. 1 on her album Piano, Piano. Lyrics seeded themselves in Souter’s mind, the beginning of a germination process which would take nearly 20 years to complete. During Covid, Souter had the time and artistic need for creative catharsis to devote to her Satie project.
” Light-devouring dark. You came to me and tore the world apart.”
The album deals with the ephemeral reality of human experience and the fierceness with which we love.
“Lying in your arms is like I’m holding onto sunlight.”
“Holding Onto Beauty (Gnossienne No. 3)” is the second of four Perdomo arrangements on the album – a heart-expanding tribute to Souter’s husband and drummer, Billy Drummond. Souter’s birth father died of Alzheimer’s Disease and her 94-year-old adopted father also suffers from memory issues.
“In the glowing embers of the days since I first met you – trying to remember all the ways I won’t forget you.”
Souter expresses her longing to always hold onto the love of her life in body and memory.
“Peace (Gnossienne No. 2)” began as a tribute to Souter’s “chosen uncle” who passed away suddenly mid-project. “We felt we had known each other in a former life,” says Souter, who was with him to the end. Her mother died just as she was finishing the album. “Now when I sing the song, it’s for both of them, hoping that they found peace in the release from what, for both, were physically very painful endings.” In such moments of deep unfathomable grief, there is a comfort in imagining that those we have lost are near, just out of sight, but always with us.
“Floating in the turquoise up above me, lonely drifter, can you see me?” Souter’s lyrics are in league with Joni Mitchell and Norma Winstone, intimate and expansive and ever illuminating:
“Sleeping in the stars above us, quiet canopy of oneness.”
As well as Satie’s well-known Gnossiennes and Gymnopedies, the album includes an inspired reimagining of his ode to the love of his life, Susanne Valadon, titled ‘Vexations’ (I kiss Your Heart.) In Souter’s arrangement, Nadje Noordhuis repeats four bars of Satie’s melody hauntingly on flugelhorn as Pascal Borderies reads only surviving letter of 300 that Satie wrote to his lover, and which were delivered to her by Satie’s brother after his death. Valadon burned the rest. In the letter, Satie comes across as a bit of a narcissist, highlighting how often narratives are hijacked by the artist (the abuser), and how survivors so often suffer in shadows and silence.
Despite the focus on loss, this album succeeds in being truly uplifting. Perhaps it is the depth with which Souter celebrates life and the people she loves. “Rayga’s Song (Gymnopedie No. 1)” is a beautiful celebration of the birth of Yasushi Nakamura’s son. Steve Wilson’s soprano saxophone captures the promise and innocence of new life and there is a delightful interplay between the double bass and soprano, expressing the life-altering joy and transformation that is parenthood.
Alongside works by Satie and French legends Léo Ferré and Jaques Brel are two works from the Miles Davis album ESP—Ron Carter’s “Mood” (with lyrics by Souter) and Wayne Shorter’s “ESP” (with lyrics by Cassandra Wilson.) Satie had a profound influence on the evolution of composition, liberating form and exploring harmony as colour rather than function. He is given less credit than his contemporaries (and devoted champions), Stravinsky and Debussy (the latter arranged two of the Gymnopedies for orchestra), but his influence is no less profound. Satie’s Gnossiennes were published in 1893, 64 years before the release of Kind of Blue. Souter highlights an important link between Satie and the revolutionary jazz composers who followed decades later.
‘Shadows and Silence’ acknowledges the simple truth that grief can only exist because we love. Souter presents us with the broken pieces of her heart, holding them up to reflect the light like shards of precious jewels. If there is an album that better captures the truth and beauty of grief, and love, I do not know it.
The CD Release Show is at Joe’s Pub NYC at 7PM on 1 July: the 100th Anniversary of Erik Satie’s Death
