Haiku Salut are an instrumental dream-pop-post-folk-neo-everything trio from the Derbyshire Dales. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Gemma Barkerwood, Sophie Barkerwood, and Louise Croft. Between them, Haiku Salut play accordion, piano, glockenspiel, trumpet, guitar, ukulele, drums, and melodica. Their music also features electronic elements, which they refer to as “loopery and laptopery”. Influenced by the evocative film soundtracks of Yann Tiersen and Benoît Charest, the genre-melting electronica of early Múm, and the impressionistic writing of Haruki Murakami, the band released their debut album Tricolore in 2013, to critical acclaim. Following this, the group published “Japanese Poems Steal Brains”, a fully illustrated collection of haikus, which told the story of the band to date. Haiku Salut’s third album ‘There Is No Elsewhere’ was released on 7th September 2018 on PRAH Recordings to critical acclaim (“Formidable and fragile, beautiful and fascinating” – Drowned In Sound. “Exactly what electro-pop can and should sound like in 2018” – Exclaim).
John Burton aka Leafcutter John originally studied Painting at Norwich School of Art and Design. After graduating, he moved to London and began exploring the possibilities of recording and manipulating sound on an old computer he originally bought to write his Art School dissertation. His first recordings reached the offices of Planet Mu Records in 1999 where its founder and Aphex Twin collaborator Mike Paradinas encouraged John’s more experimental efforts. Working with Planet Mu, John released 3 critically acclaimed albums which culminated in the release of The Housebound Spirit, an album which combined elements of music-concrete and electro-acoustic music with voice and guitar work more commonly found in folk music. It won an Honorary Mention at the 2004 Ars Electronica Awards, and was featured in The Wire Magazine’s Top 50 records of 2003.
Since 2010 John has been busy designing, building, and developing his light controlled musical interface. The interface is a music performance system comprising a light sensitive controller and specialised software developed by John that is played gesturally using handheld lights and other light sources. The sounds produced are strongly related to the performer’s actions and are all produced in real-time to create an immersive audiovisual experience. He’s performed throughout Europe using the system and given talks and workshops with it at various Music and Art Schools.
Yosi Horikawa is a self-taught sound designer who, since the age of 12, has spent most of his time and talent manipulating and grinding up all sorts of sounds. Mixing genre, style and instruments, his long for acoustic exploration has no limits, plunging the audience into his very personal musical world.
Since 2015 the Kiezsalon has offered a forum for innovative musical activity beyond genre boundaries. As an interface between avant-garde, advanced pop music and interdisciplinary art, the series presents compact performances of 30 minutes by artists of diverse genres, origin and status. Initiated by Digital in Berlin and based at one of the last authentic locations in Berlin – the 120-year-old, hidden Musikbrauerei. Following five exciting years, the Kiezsalon has established itself as one of the most popular and successful series in Berlin, so far hosting more than 100 acts from 32 countries.
Haiku Salut, Leafcutter John & Yosi Horikawa LIVE
Decks: FRKTL
Wednesday, 31st July 2019 | Doors 20:00 CET | Start 21:00 CET
Musikbrauerei | Greifswalder Strasse 23a in 10407 Berlin/Prenzlauer Berg
Tickets available via Eventbrite: kiezsalon.eventbrite.co.uk
Photo © Katherine Mager
Facebook event | Haiku Salut | Leafcutter John | Yosi Horikawa
The Kiezsalon is curated by Michael Rosen and funded by Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
