DERBYSHIRE’S brilliant post-folkrock trio Haiku Salut will be releasing two new ten-minute tracks over the next week, both in response to a commission by Live Cinema UK, in which the three-piece was set the task of rescoring archive shorts from the British Film Institute National Archive.
The first, “Pattern Thinker”, soundtracks the 1940 black and white short, “4 And 20 Fit Girls”: an evocative wartime curio about a group of women in matching grey tunics undertaking a balletic exercise regime in a community hall, which has been likened to “Busby Berkeley directing ‘Passport To Pimlico'”. Take a listen, below.
Haiku Salut’s new score marries intricate electronica with emotive postrock in their inimitable style to create a joyous and expansive aural dimension. It has all the juddering, shimmering beauty you’ve come to expect of them; a perfect, blissful marriage of generative elements and analogue instrument evocation.
It was originally premiered at an online watch party on July 19th, from which funds raised went to independent cinemas near the band’s Derbyshire Dales base.
The second, out next Friday, is “Portrait In Dust”; just under eleven minutes of soundtrack for the 1920 short, “Nude Woman By Waterfall”, shot by pioneering British filmographer Claude Friese-Greene. It’s a dreamlike, impressionistic piece, an experiment in mood, style and atmosphere – and Haiku Salut’s music matches this tone perfectly with a haunted ambient score.
“We were thinking: dust motes in sunshine, the smell of distant woodsmoke, Derwent valley fog, the inevitable deterioration of everything. Nothing. Everything. Being. A meditative arrangement for the mind and body after an aerobic workout,” explains the band’s Sophie Barkerwood.
The rescore project was produced by Live Cinema UK, supported by Arts Council England and Film Hub North. Both tracks will be released by Secret Name on iTunes, Bandcamp and streaming services.
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