Haiku Salut – Etch and Etch Deep

Half-dreams – the hypnagogic state between wakefulness and sleeping. That’s where Haiku Salut sneak up on you, playing on your fragile consciousness and weaving together subtle strands from your psyche. Their ethereal creations – by turns eldritch, sensual and beautiful – have been dubbed an ‘imaginary soundtrack’, with hints of Yann Tiersen’s luscious soundscapes bleeding into playful, rainbow-coloured Aphex Twin-isms, but they're so much more than the sum of those parts.

The ten wordless songs here push on from the folksy beauty of 2013’s debut Tricolore, merging textures and time signatures with melliferous melodies that shift almost imperceptibly; the waltz that emerges during Bleak And Beautiful (All Things) is almost as perfect as the vocal harmonies that embolden Hearts Not Parts’ warm electronic delirium, like early morning sunbeams bursting through the gap between curtains. This is no mere soundtrack, it’s an imaginary world: to dwell there even briefly is a uniquely spiritual experience.