I mumbled somewhere else about starting a thread on this guy, and the other day I learned that Seal Pool is planning on reissuing some early stuff. So here goes...
Haigh palled around with the whole England's Hidden Reverse crowd and is credited on a few earlier Nurse With Wound albums - Spiral Insana, notably. As Truth Club, he had a track on the Hoisting The Black Flag comp, plus a couple of singles I think. One was a split with Fote, I think he was in that band also. Anybody have more info on them? Or Truth Club?
Sema put out three records on (I assume) Haigh's own Le Rey label. Creepy, piano-based soundtracky stuff that isn't nearly as noisy as some contemporaries. I initially was exposed to Haigh's work through some comp tracks - Sema has a couple of excellent ones on the Ohrenschrauben and Devastate To Liberate LPs.
So I assumed this was a different Haigh than the D&B one. Hence my WTF at this Seal Pool review (from Mimaroglu Music)...
"robert haigh & silent storm - from the air (seal pool 04) cd
robert haigh is best known for his innovative drum and bass work of the 90s. but some may know him from the early 80s where he was part of a circle of 'musicians' carving out a niche in experimental, ambient, electronic and avant-garde music. along side artists such as nurse with wound, current 93 and hafler trio, haigh produced a much sought after series of albums and e.p.s under the name sema.
in the late 80s haigh grew tired of the simplistic equation that experimental = noise/dissonance (exclusively), and decided to expand his horizons, experimenting with computers and samplers. in the early 90s he signed to the legendary moving shadow label and produced a series of highly acclaimed albums and singles under the name omni trio.
with 'from the air' we come bang up to date with haigh's career. this album finds a common ground between the approaches of the two previous decades. here the use of breaks is minimal and employed only as a component part of a track's structure (shift work, three revolutions etc.). on x-generation and the title track from the air, piano and keyboards are to the fore providing a tapestry of interlocking counterpoint where melody is exploited minimally in shifting patterns to build the momentum of the tracks. some pieces are mainly solo piano reminiscent of the atmospheric and haunted work of sema (a secret place, river man, evolution crawls etc.).
this collection of "post minimalist sonic landscapes" (wikipedia) utilises complex time signatures, layers of shifting counterpoint, deeply haunting melodic phrasing and atmospheric production to present a hugely satisfying yet challenging sonic journey."
hmmm. Haven't heard any of this new stuff (still reeling), but Haigh went all Windham Hill in the late 80's with a solo piano rec called Valentine Out Of Season. There are also two earlier 12" singles on the Belgian LAYLAH label that I like, they strike a nice balance between scary sparse Sema sound and some kind of warmer, fuzzier Steve Reich.
Anyway, if anyone from Seal Pool is listening, please reissue all early stuff and especially the Three Seasons Only LP (credited jointly to Haigh and Sema), some very crystalline buckets of beauty in that one.
Should I investigate this later Omni Trio etc. stuff, ILMers?
― sleeve, Tuesday, 10 July 2007 03:41 (sixteen years ago) link
Rob Haigh is one of my all time faves..
If you know him from the Sema records, then Omni Trio is a bit of a shock at first, although the piano melodies and structures do point to his earlier piano based work..
The first couple of Omni LP's are superb - Volume 1 is a collection of his earlier Jungle tracks, which definitely shaped the whole genre. But as the DnB sound got more extreme and dark, Omni moved in a more melodic direction more in common with LTJ Bukem etc..
Haven't picked up the new solo CD yet, but from what i hear it sounds pretty good.
All his early stuff is almost impossible to find.. He has resisted any reissuing of the Le Rey stuff for over a decade, but maybe he changed his mind - it's about time...
Three Seasons Only and Theme From Hunger are the best.. Although I still rate the piano records "Valentine Out Of Season" and his only CD release "Waltz in Plain C"
― Jack Battery-Pack, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 09:25 (sixteen years ago) link
Wow, thanks! Nice to hear another fan's opinion.
I'll keep an eye on the Seal Pool website. Ironically, I learned about the reissue plans from an mp3 blog's explanation for why they took down some tracks.
― sleeve, Saturday, 21 July 2007 00:24 (sixteen years ago) link
i was lucky enough to stumble upon a copy of "Waltz in Plain C" the other day. It's a fantastic disc.
I have vinyl rips of all the SEMA material and some is really superb. I think Theme From Hunger has something really elegant and strangely beautiful about it.
I also heard that the early stuff might see reissue. Fingers officially crossed...
I don't have much interest in the post-sema material, though it's nice to see him active.
― oo, Saturday, 21 July 2007 00:43 (sixteen years ago) link
new Robert Haigh CD on Seal Pool comes with a limited bonus CDR of archival Sema material!!! I have ordered it but I don't know what's on it other than "Theme From Hunger", will report back.
― sleeve, Tuesday, 23 October 2007 06:38 (sixteen years ago) link
the new cd, Anonymous Lights, is really great. the best of the recent-ish cds. haunting melancholy beauty.
― nerve_pylon, Thursday, 9 December 2010 03:25 (thirteen years ago) link
hey thanks, I was just thinking about reviving this to ask about that new record.
― sleeve, Thursday, 9 December 2010 06:02 (thirteen years ago) link
also, three years later I should add that the bonus disc of that Silent Storm set is kind of like an extended version of "Rosa Silber" iirc and well worth tracking down if you like his sparse scary piano vibe.
― sleeve, Thursday, 9 December 2010 06:04 (thirteen years ago) link
i'd love to hear that. there's a copy on eBay right now for $159! o_O
― nerve_pylon, Thursday, 9 December 2010 14:23 (thirteen years ago) link
long interview with Haigh up now at Brainwashed:
http://www.brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8547:robert-haigh-discipline-and-space&catid=74:interviews&Itemid=91
― sleeve, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 04:19 (thirteen years ago) link
^ thanks for posting that!
― nerve_pylon, Tuesday, 21 December 2010 13:21 (thirteen years ago) link
LS: Are there any plans to re-release your early records? If not, why not?
RH: Unfortunately all the master tapes for those releases are lost.
:(
― sleeve, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 21:08 (thirteen years ago) link
true, although for my money it's all about Valentine Out of Season and after. what i'd love is a triple vinyl box of Notes and Crossings, Anonymous Lights, and the forthcoming one.
also, i disagree w/ that interviewer about Anonymous Lights being busier and less introspective than Notes.
― nerve_pylon, Wednesday, 22 December 2010 22:24 (thirteen years ago) link
VOD103: SEMA (Robert Haigh) "Time will Say Nothing" 4LP-Box 64,99 ยค
SEMA is an 80"s experimental-project by Robert Haigh who became well known in the 90"s for his ambient Drum & Bass-project Omni Trio.
In 1980 Robert formed the industrial/avant-funk bands Truth Club and Fote as well as his own label Le Rey Records.
Between 1982 and 1984 he released 4 Lp"s under the name SEMA on his own Le Rey label: Notes from Underground, Theme from Hunger, Extract from Rosa Silber and Three Seasons Only - which can be found in this Box-Set Release.
He also contributed to several Nurse With Wound (United Dairies) projects. Those recordings are provided as bonus tracks on this Box-Set in addition to the 4Lp"s.
The music of SEMA integrates pianos, orchestral instruments and experimental techniques in a neo-classical and minimalist approach.
These legendary recordings employ a wide palette of light and shade, emotion, texture and atmosphere to produce a sound that is unique in its form and expression.
This will be one of my favorite box sets ever.
― sleeve, Thursday, 24 May 2012 03:32 (eleven years ago) link
so it's actually "out"?
― nerve_pylon, Thursday, 24 May 2012 03:59 (eleven years ago) link
available for pre-order
― sleeve, Friday, 25 May 2012 01:11 (eleven years ago) link
excited!
― Talcum Mucker, Friday, 25 May 2012 04:27 (eleven years ago) link
This will be my first VoD purchase...
ditto!
― nerve_pylon, Friday, 25 May 2012 12:38 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.vinyl-on-demand.com/bilder/gross/SemaBoxInternet2.jpg
Drooool......
― Talcum Mucker, Friday, 25 May 2012 13:18 (eleven years ago) link
wtf no liner notes?!?!
― sleeve, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 00:47 (eleven years ago) link
The lack of some sort of notes or historical info is unfortunate. Still, nice remastering/restoration work, and it's nice to have this music circulating again after so long! At the time, for whatever reason, people seemed to look at Sema as a sort of NWW-lite, which seems to be really missing the point. Hopefully a second volume containing 'Juliet of the Spirits', 'Music from the Antechamber', 'Valentine Out of Season' and 'A Waltz in Plain C' won't be too long in the making.
― alb indys, Wednesday, 1 August 2012 03:15 (eleven years ago) link
interesting tidbits from a friend:
A lot of the Sema set was taken from vinyl as the masters were lost. I thought Ihad found a few of them some years back, but it was a somewhat dead end. Theoriginal Le Rey pressings were really crappy, so that's why tapes and mp3s soundawful. VOD spent a lot of time remastering. I think Frank said 3 days on onedifficult piece. It is an amazing improvement and literally better than they haveever sounded.
― sleeve, Friday, 10 August 2012 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
exciting! just got mine today! oddly, it has two different 'numbered edition' cards--two diff. numbers.
― nerve_pylon, Friday, 10 August 2012 21:23 (eleven years ago) link
2 LP set coming out on VOD in 2014, I am guessing that this is the three LAYLAH records and maybe the comp track from "The Fight Goes On".
― sleeve, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 20:26 (ten years ago) link
woot!
― nerve_pylon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 20:36 (ten years ago) link
i wish it would include A Waltz in Plain C too.
― nerve_pylon, Wednesday, 6 November 2013 21:16 (ten years ago) link
yesssss
http://www.vinyl-on-demand.com/-1-402-502.htm
― sleeve, Thursday, 13 November 2014 02:32 (nine years ago) link
nerve pylon or other folks, anyone heard Darkling Streams or The Silence Of Ghosts? how about Written On Water?
― sleeve, Tuesday, 20 September 2016 02:21 (seven years ago) link
i didn't care for Darkling Streams when it came out, but now I can't remember why--just recall it not being as good as the three Siren ads that preceded it. I'll have to get it out again. I like Written on Water. And I haven't heard Silence of Ghosts.
― nerve_pylon, Tuesday, 20 September 2016 04:19 (seven years ago) link
^cds, not ads.
― nerve_pylon, Tuesday, 20 September 2016 04:20 (seven years ago) link
If you liked Anonymous Lights, The Silence of Ghosts is in that line, but with a little more room tone, slightly dustier air.
Written on Water IIRC has some synthy stuff that seemed intrusive, haven't relistened. Should maybe give it another shot.
― alb indys, Tuesday, 20 September 2016 19:26 (seven years ago) link
thanks y'all! I just got a copy of Anonymous Lights to start out with, the most recent thing I had was that Silent Storm record (which I love).
― sleeve, Tuesday, 20 September 2016 19:31 (seven years ago) link