Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock

Release and tour

Recording for Professor Satchafunkilus began in October 2007 and the title was announced on March 13, 2008. Touring began in Europe in April–June with guitarist Paul Gilbert as the opening act, followed by Australia and New Zealand in July, Mexico and South America in late July–August, and concluding in North America in October–November.

Overview

The album's title has two meanings: the first part is a homage to Satriani's nickname of "Satch", whilst "Musterion" is a Greco–Biblical word meaning "hidden thing", "secret" or "mystery". From the date of the album's release until April 11, 2008, Satriani began a special "Guitar Center Sessions" tour, followed by a worldwide tour on April 30.

All tracks were composed in 2007 with the exception of "Come on Baby", which, as Satriani explains, was written in 1993 amidst a snowstorm during a vacation in Lake Tahoe. His son ZZ later encouraged him to finish the piece, upon which it became the third song dedicated to his wife Rubina. It was later used by Canadian figure skater Vaughn Chipeur for his short program at the 2010 Canadian Figure Skating Championships; this earned him a silver medal and qualification for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"Revelation" was written about the passing of fellow guitarist Steve Morse's father, as well as being a tribute of sorts to Morse's playing.

As with "One Robot's Dream" from Super Colossal (2006), Satriani continues with the theme of exploring the humanistic side of robots on "I Just Wanna Rock". On a podcast detailing the making of the album, he explained the track to be about a robot's experiences at a rock concert.

The final two tracks, "Asik Vaysel" and "Andalusia", were both inspired by the late Aşık Veysel, a critically acclaimed figure of Turkish folk literature. "Andalusia" features a melody (from 1:40 to 1:53) which was previously played by Satriani on his 1993 video The Satch Tapes, during an acoustic guitar segment. On a podcast prior to the album's release, Satriani explained that a publishing error was the reason why Aşık Veysel's name was misspelled "Asik Vaysel" on the back cover, and that it would be corrected on subsequent pressings.

Critical reception

Jason Lymangrover at AllMusic gave Professor Satchafunkilus three stars out of five, saying that Satriani "shines in his ability to hold back and write tasteful verse/chorus songs with memorable hooks." The songs on the album were described as "technically impressive numbers that never go overboard with the showboating and rely on a sense of feeling rather than virtuoso technique." One song which was criticized as a low point was "I Just Wanna Rock", but highlights included "Overdriver", "Musterion", "Andalusia", "Asik Vaysel", and the title track.

Track listing

All music composed by Joe Satriani.

Personnel