Description:	CD on Sonic Pieces
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Neoclassical
	Label:	Sonic Pieces
	Price:	£10.99
	Availability:	Sold out / currently unavailable. Sorry!

5
...according to our Ant on 18 March 2010.

Following releases on Slaapwell, Rite, Eat This Media and Miasmah Greg Haines makes his debut on Sonic Pieces (Nils Frahm, Heather Woods Broderick, Library Tapes, Konntinent). I've opted for headphone listening on this one as it works very subtly and is very spacious. Certainly an exercise in restraint that works brilliantly. It's extremely dramatic and exceptionally powerful. The second piece 'Marc's Descent' feels cinematic in terms of scope and I can imagine it soundtracking a Francis Ford Coppola movie. Fans of Johann Johannsen should check this out. Greg Haines is a mega talented musician and he really shines here. There really are moments that could reduce a grown man to tears, some moments feel harrowing and others uplifting. Moving stuff all round. This is a stunning neo-classical album that follows the high quality and standards of Sonic Pieces. There is a regular edition and a limited number in their woven mini hardback book style cover. Be quick if you want one of those but rest assured the regular version is lovely too.

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What their label says...

Until the Point of Hushed Support is the second full-length offering from Greg Haines, born in England and now based in Berlin. Though it has been over three years since the release of his debut, Slumber Tides (Miasmah, 2006), the last few years have seen Haines traveling around the world and refining his craft, performing as a solo artist, improvising with other musicians, creating music for contemporary dance, and finally arriving at this new album, a beautifully contemplative forty-eight minute piece for string quintet, church organ, piano, percussion, and electronics.

For the most part, this album was recorded in the Grunewald Church in Berlin with the assistance of friend and fellow musician, Nils Frahm. Together, Haines and Frahm assembled a team of musicians to bring the score alive. More processed sounds (mostly assembled at Haines' Berlin studio, The Electricity Works) were even played back into the church and re-recorded, to truly add to the acoustic nature of the album.

Whereas Slumber Tides played out as a gorgeous exploration of sound and composition by a curious musician with fresh ears, Until the Point of Hushed Support comes across as a bold statement from a unique modern composer. Throughout the four sections of the piece, we are taken seamlessly through an incredibly powerful dynamic range. With an assortment of sounds collected and processed over the last two years combined with the live instrumentation, Haines creates his own orchestra; a unique sonic world where the sound of a dying radio is just as important as a mournful violin.


Tracklisting:

I. Industry vs. Inferiority
II. Marc's Descent
III. In the Event of a Sudden Loss
IV. Until the Point of Least Resistance