The lesser sung heroes of lo-fi

The beauty of lo-fi beats lies in their simplicity, typically constructed of samples and/or a few instruments ran through tape machines or with added analog effects. The results are warm and atmospheric sounds delicately glued together with structure and rhythm. They provide a landscape that fosters flow and concentration, thus all the hype around “study beats.”

The influence of 1990s golden age artists like De La Soul, Digable Planets, and KRS-One feels palpable. Less obvious - or perhaps simply less acknowledged - is the influence of composers like Erik Satie, Joe Hisaishi, and Harold Budd.

Erik Satie was a French composer and pianist influential in the late 19th and early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd.

Joe Hisaishi is a Japanese composer and musical director known for his piano compositions and over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. He’s been associated with animator Hayao Miyazaki since 1984 and has been recognized for the soundtracks he composed for filmmaker 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano.

Harold Budd, who recently left this world in 2020, was a respected composer in the minimalist and avant-garde scene of Southern California in the late 1960s, and later became better known for his work with figures such as Brian Eno and Robin Guthrie. An NPR article remembering Budd describes his music as, “The primary hue in his palette was a snowy-white piano texture so smudged with soft pedal and sustain that it's like hearing Erik Satie through a blizzard. When his melodies wander into the higher octaves, the twinkling tone is so pure and idyllic, it verges on translucent. Across the 30-plus records, he made solo and in collaboration, he played other instruments — electric keyboards, synthesizers, early samplers like the Synclavier — but the acoustic piano remained at the heart of his sound.”