Erik Satie penned genuinely timeless hits, but so far his songs have not enjoyed equal attention. As Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher demonstrate on this new recording of Satie's complete Mélodies and Chansons, however, a great injustice has been done here.

Satie's own Trois Poèmes d'amour are extremely concentrated; short songs, not one of them longer than eight measures, with the 'explanations' so very characteristic of his later compositions - supplementary texts without an obvious relation to the particular composition. In these miniatures, too, Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher prove to be the ideal advocates of Satie's music: without affected silliness but with fine humour and a good dose of irony, they make for an entertaining programme with depth.