Greg Haines

British-born composer and musician Greg Haines has carved out a uniquely personal approach to creating and performing engaging and densely textural works for both the studio and the stage.
His recording career began in 2006 at the tender age of 18, when he released his critically acclaimed debut album, 'Slumber Tides'. Thus was established his craft for long-form, slowly unravelling crescendos for strings, piano and other orchestral instrumentation, all accentuated with subtle electronics and processing to form something both immersive and emotive. Further releases in this vein would culminate in 2012's 'Digressions', which would eventually become a cult classic in this field. Compositions from this album, in particular 'Azure' and '183 Times', would go on to be used regularly on both stage and screen, and praise from the very composers who inspired it.
In 2013, Denovali Records released “Where We Were”, which surprised listeners with a new creative palette and a more rhythmical approach. The strings that played such an important role in his prior work had disappeared, and in there place were intricate layers of tape-worn synthesizers and percussion. Moments of quiet, slow-moving texture could still be found, but they were nestled between upbeat, polyrhythmically-driven tracks that at times could even be considered for deployment on open-minded dancefloors. To further confound listeners, Haines would also release a solo piano around this time, an instrument that was pivotal to his live performances but had usually taken on a background role in his studio and scored works. Recorded (and mostly improvised) in a day, 'Moments Eluding' would go on to garner tens of millions of listens worldwide.
Haines has also toured extensively as a solo performer and improviser across four continents. His brand of spontaneous live performance on his constantly evolving set-up of instruments led to his involvement in many ensembles for pure improvisation, with his founding of The Alvaret Ensemble leading to three studio albums recorded in churches across Europe.
His work as a composer has supplemented by a host of compositions for dance, notably his ongoing work with the
English choreographer David Dawson. This fruitful collaboration has so far led to four works: “Day4” (2012, Dutch National Ballet, Amstedam), “Opus 11”(2013, Semperoper Ballett, Saxon State Ballet, Dresden), “The Human Seasons” (2013, The Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House, London) and “Empire Noir” (2015, Dutch National Ballet, Amsterdam).