Maybe there is no composed music that impressed me as much as the Gymnopédies by Erik Satie. In their transparence and uncompromising simplicity they unfold a timeless magic and tender beauty - at least for my ears. Hence my aesthetic ideal in composing has always been this: unpretentious clarity and plainness, purity of expression through reduction of complexity. In my African compositions I always set aside chromatic scales and chords and focused on the seven notes of the major scale. And in t...