Robert Haigh is a veteran of UK underground music from the early eighties onwards. In the eighties he worked on seminal Nurse With Wound albums and released a series of darkly ambient albums and EPs under the name Sema. The nineties saw Haigh experimenting with atmospheric textures and sequenced rhythms under the name Omni Trio. From the mid naughties onwards Haigh has returned to his love of minimal piano counterpoint with releases on Seal Pool, Crouton, Siren and now Primary Numbers.
Release date: September 17, 2013
Darkling Streams is the awaited follow-up to the acclaimed trio of piano albums released on Siren Records between 2009 and 2011. Taking up where the Siren trilogy left off, Darkling Streams is a collection of piano miniatures with occasional wisps of shimmering electronic texture. As with the Siren releases, the pieces are intimate, atmospheric, hauntingly melodic and introspective. Shades of Satie, Harold Budd, Arvo Part, Glass and Sakamoto can be detected in these works but never to the extent of overshadowing Haigh’s distinctive expression and harmonic preoccupations. This current set stands apart, however, with the inclusion of a handful of extended pieces. Tracks such as “Fugue State,” “Of Eros And Dust,” and “Rain For Avalon” have an epic and darkly cinematic quality not heard on previous albums.
tracklist:
- Fugue State
- Remains Of A River
- Twice Solitaire
- Cage Of Shadows
- Darkling Streams
- Ipcress Girl
- Lunaire
- Mysterious Lights
- Of Eros And Dust
- Air Cerulian
- A Plague Of Notes
- Crepuscule
- Crepuscule 2 – [SOUNDCLOUD STREAM]
- Circle Of Deranged Fifths
- End Title
- Rain For Avalon
Memorable melodies, ghostly harmonies, yearning phrases, and tense, frequently circular rhythms are often the only figures populating his songs, and with them he draws up a surprisingly diverse cast of expressions and feelings. – Laughtrack
Whether circular or linear, these tuneful, minimal melodies are truly precious pieces, black-and-white snapshots only just beginning to yellow and curl at the edges. – Igloo
You’d think Haigh’s choice of instrumentation — primarily piano — would act as a limiter rather than a liberator, but the opposite is in fact true. More evidently, Haigh’s channeled a number of his contemporaries (Steve Reich and Susumu Yokota spring instantly to mind) to give these pieces authoritative heft. – The Squid’s Ear
Whether circular or linear, these tuneful, minimal melodies are truly precious pieces, black-and-white snapshots only just beginning to yellow and curl at the edges. – Igloo
discography:
- “Notes from Underground” and “Theme from Hunger” (as Sema), Le Rey Records 1982
- “Extract from Rosa Silber” (as Sema), Le Rey Records 1983
- “Three Seasons Only,” Le Rey Records, 1984
- “The Sylvie and Babs H-Fi Companion,” (with Nurse with Wound), United Dairies, 1985
- “Juliet of the Spirits,” LAYLAH Anti-Records, 1985
- “Spiral Insana,” (with Nurse with Wound), United Dairies, 1986
- “Music from the Anti-Chamber,” LAYLAH Anti-Records, 1986
- “Valentine Out Of Season,” and “The Best Of Robert Haigh,” United Dairies, 1987
- “A Waltz In Plain C,” Le Rey Records, 1989
- “A Sucked Orange” (with Nurse with Wound), United Dairies, 1990
- “Music for the Next Millennium” (as Omni Trio), Sm:)e Communications, 1995
- “Haunted Science” (as Omni Trio), Moving Shadow, 1996
- “Skeleton Keys” (as Omni Trio), Moving Shadow, 1997
- “Even Angels Cast Shadows” (as Omni Trio), Moving Shadow, 2001
- “From the Air” (with Silent Storm), Seal Pool, 2007
- “Written On Water,” Crouton 2008
- “Notes And Crossings,” Siren 2009
- “Anonymous Lights,” Siren 2010
- “Strange and Secret Things,” Siren 2011
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