Igor Levit to Release ERIK SATIE'S COMPLETE VEXATIONS on NO SILENCE RECORDS

Pianist Igor Levit will release a complete recording of Erik Satie's Vexations on October 23, 2026, on Levit's label NO SILENCE RECORDS, in cooperation with Sony Classical. Pre-order is available now.

Presented in a unique format and limited to just 840 copies, the edition centres on an NFC bracelet designed by jewelry artist Saskia Diez, providing access to the complete recording. The release also includes a vinyl edition featuring a selection of 30 repetitions of the work, as well as a page of sheet music from Vexations, signed by Igor Levit.

Satie's Vexations occupies an almost mythical place in music history. Consisting of only a handful of bars, the piece is built around a brief and enigmatic sequence of notes which, according to the composer's instructions, should be repeated 840 times. Depending on the chosen tempo, a performance can last anywhere between 13 and 20 hours. Believed to have been composed in the emotional aftermath of Satie's short but intense relationship with the painter Suzanne Valadon, the work remained undiscovered until after the composer's death and subsequently became a landmark of the musical avant-garde.

Through its radical simplicity, Vexations raises fundamental questions: what defines a piece of music? What role do performer and audience play? And how are our perceptions transformed by repetition and the passage of time? It is hardly surprising that the work later captivated composers such as John Cage, who organised the first public performance in 1963.

For Igor Levit, Vexations has long been part of his artistic thinking. He first performed the marathon work during the pandemic, when the exceptional circumstances of lockdown created new opportunities for experimentation. The purely audio recording now being released, however, posed an entirely different challenge.

'It truly felt like a torment for the first time,' says Levit. 'The energy turned inward rather than outward. It was the most honest, most intense and also the slowest performance I have given so far.'

It is precisely here that the distinctive power of this recording lies. Free from the character of a live event and without any visual distraction, it focuses entirely on the music, on time, and on the act of listening itself. What appears to be a simple sequence of repetitions becomes an intense journey through concentration, perception and consciousness.

True to Satie's spirit, the work resists any definitive interpretation. It tells no story, pursues no conventional dramatic goal and offers no obvious emotional point of entry. Instead, it opens a space for individual experiences and reflections. For Levit, this is exactly where the enduring fascination of the piece resides: 'Conceptually, the work is revolutionary.'

Bringing together a complete recording of Satie's groundbreaking masterpiece with an NFC bracelet specially created by Saskia Diez, Vexations becomes an unprecedented listening experience at the intersection of music, performance and object art.

Igor Levit: Erik Satie - Vexations

Exclusive LP-format edition featuring an NFC bracelet designed by Saskia Diez, a 180g vinyl record containing a selection of 30 repetitions of the work, and a sheet of music signed by Igor Levit. NO SILENCE RECORDS / Sony Classical.