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. The album was awarded four stars by The Guardian, Uncut, Mojo, Drowned In Sound, and many more, and in the summer of 2013, the trio won the Green Man Rising contest, and opened the main stage at that year’s Green Man Festival. Haiku Salut’s second album, “Etch And Etch Deep”, was released in July 2015, to similar acclaim.
Haiku Salut are famed for their mute performances, allowing the music to cast its magical spell. One memorable live review described them as “an experimental orchestra made of loop pedals, accordions, melodicas, and god knows what else. It feels like watching Mary Poppins pull another instrument out of a never-ending bag.”
Haiku Salut feature on the 2017 Public Service Broadcasting album Every Valley. Haiku Salut release their third album in September 2018.