Strange Beautiful Music

Strange Beautiful Music is the ninth studio album by guitarist Joe Satriani, released on June 25, 2002, through Epic Records; a Super Audio CD edition was released on September 10. The album reached No. 140 on the United States Billboard 200 and remained on that chart for a week, as well as reaching the top 100 in four other countries.

"Starry Night" was released as a single on June 10 and received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 2003 Grammy Awards, Satriani's twelfth such nomination.

The title Strange Beautiful Music is also the name of Satriani's publishing company, as well as a lyric from "Third Stone from the Sun", a song by Jimi Hendrix, whom Satriani has cited as his main inspiration to start playing the guitar in his youth.

Release and tour
Recording for Strange Beautiful Music began in January 2002 and the title was announced on March 25. Worldwide touring began in Europe in July, followed by North America from August to September, East Asia in October, additional dates in North America from November through to February 2003, Central America in March, and concluding in South America in April.

Personnel

 * Joe Satriani – guitar, banjo, keyboard (tracks 11, 14), sitar, autoharp (track 2), bass, engineering, mixing, production
 * Robert Fripp – Frippertronics (track 6)
 * Eric Caudieux – keyboard (track 4), digital editing, production
 * Jeff Campitelli – drums, percussion (track 14)
 * Gregg Bissonette – drums (track 2)
 * John Cuniberti – percussion (tracks 1, 2, 5, 10, 11), engineering, mixing, production
 * Matt Bissonette – bass
 * Pia Vai – harp (track 4)
 * Justin Phelps – engineering assistance, digital editing
 * Bernie Grundman – mastering