Some links to reviews of my music
"...for now we’ve honed in three of the tracks as a brief teaser of what to expect, starting as we mean to go on with with the disquieting chill of ‘Marsh’ by Ian Haygreen. Remote and isolated, the sense of being alone crystalises to grim effect, a slow pacing piano braid prowls with sinister menace under the gathering gloom of a descending nightfall, with it shadows stretch and lengthen, emerging from their hidey holes creatures of the night watch patiently, the very elements themselves morphing into darkening personas to disfigure the skyline and disorientate as though in some treacherous conspiracy serving to stir an inner paranoia and a hitherto untapped terror."
"Ian Haygreen’s “An Echo of the Forgotten” is by far the cleverest and most commendable piece of this collection. This composition risks making a fool of Haygreen given the immensity of the challenge that he has undertaken. “An Echo of the Forgotten” uses chords and chord progressions from Bach’s Organ Works and re-frames the great master’s work inside an experimental musical matrix. The result is an absolute triumph for Haygreen who manages to bring Bach to the twenty first century delivering an almost impossible task: to reinterpret J.S. Bach in such a way that it gains in quality.
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Haygreen’s re-working of J.S. Bach is a sign that we have finally arrived somewhere in the experimental camp after a century of slow progress. Haygreen’s work is experimental music in long trousers."
"Ian Haygreen’s work however is pretty dense and tense. It sounds as if he uses both of his elbows to bang them once and a while on the keys of an authentic piano; this gives the strange atmosphere of darkness a feeling of someone (or something) evil lurking around. Think of thick dark and pretty layers and here and there those distinctive elbows on piano keys moments."
"On this release, Ian has gathered a set of European Christmas Carols from the 12th to the 18th century and given them very moody and sparse settings that seem to reflect the reduced lighting of he season.
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Many of these pieces are likely to be unfamiliar to the casual listener. There are not the “Hark The Herald Angels” or “Jingle Bells” types of pieces that many of us are familiar with. And that’s a good thing. Listening to a piece like “A la Nanita Nana” is a like attending a church service in the middle of the storm of the century.
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it’s this kind of thinking that attracts me to this release. I am amongst those people that are not very traditional when it comes to the holidays. Especially Christmas, since as an atheist it holds little meaning to me. So, taking the idea of what could be a traditional setting (like performing these pieces on a pipe organ), and changing them up by modifying the surrounding, or tinkering with the organ stops is an interesting way to link traditional and non-traditional concepts.
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Another thing about this release is that the majority of these works are not in traditional arrangements. Most Carols are typically just a couple of minutes long. On Dark Yule, the shortest is four minutes, while several pieces wander into the eight to ten minute range.
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So, with all of this modification of the settings, arrangements, and textural elements of these works where would they fit in during this holiday season? It’s obvious that this isn’t going to be part of the soundtrack for the office holiday party. No, I think this would fit in well if you were putting together something more along the lines of a Goth-styled celebration. One in which the darkness would be a welcome and celebrated element.
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Conclusion
As I have stated above: this isn’t your standard Christmas music. The arrangements, textures, styles, and settings are very different from what you would normally expect. These are your jazz or pop music that you would have on as background music at your next holiday party. This is more like a Goth’s interpretation of what Christmas music should be like. Of course, most of the Goths I know would probably like to have more of a beat to their music, but still as background music mixed into a playlist, this would probably work very well.
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Bravo for thinking outside of the traditional Christmas music box!"
"To quote Ian regarding this release:
A selection of lesser known (in the UK at least) and a few well-known carols from various centuries generally mucked around with.
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And, indeed, in the sixteen tracks on this release, you will find some of the traditional, better known pieces like: “A Maiden Most Gentle” (aka Away In A Manger), “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”, “Over The River and Through The Wood” and “O Come, O Come Emmanuel”. And there are quite a few lesser known pieces like “Arre Borriquito”, “Pat-a-Pan” and “Vol van pracht”.
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On this release Ian has stuck with more traditional length versions of many of the songs. Instead of the eight to ten minute long pieces on Dark Yule, these are typically in the two to four minute range (although a few are in the five to six minute range).
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As for the comment “…generally mucked around with.” Yes, these are generally not your typical arrangements. In some cases they might start out sounding like traditional (although maybe slightly cheesy) arrangements, but when you hear a piece like “Hark, The Herald Angels Sing” in a deep bass, with electronic chimes, and church bells it’s kind of like hearing Isao Tomita interpret this song on ancient Moog synthesizers And, this mood is carried on to “Over the River and Through the Wood”.
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Other songs have settings that are just slightly off-center from a traditional setting. For example, “O Come, O Come Emanuel” sounds like it is set on an organ with a very thin and distorted reed sound, while ” Mary Had a Baby (Oh Lord)” features a beautiful choral recording set against a minimal and dark organ recording.
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Not all of the tracks on this release are challenging or extreme interpretations of the original works. For example, “Pat-a-Pan” is a nice light work, with a spartan rhythm that is quite easily listenable. As is “The Coventry Carol”.
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This is another recording that isn’t likely to be the hit tunes that you are going to have on as background music at your office holiday party. However, it does make a nice alternative to the standard jazz and pop tunes of the season, and is more easily mixed into a playlist as a way shaking things up a bit without being too overbearing.
Conclusion
Two releases, neither of them taking the standard approach to holiday music. This is probably the more accessible of the two. It will probably go over well with friends or family that are not as inclined to traditional music. However it is still not the soundtrack for your office holiday party.
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I love some of the pieces on this release. I’m especially enthralled with the setting of “Mary Had a Baby (Oh Lord)” which is an African piece I had never heard before. However, some of these pieces will really push the listener in unusual ways, like “Vol van pracht”."
"...this has some great ambient sounds against the rhythm of the original track. Ian wanted the track to summon up the image of being inside a timepiece and this is a great description, I can see the cogs and wheels turning and hear them echoing. They’re keeping very good time."
"Ian Haygreen’s track “Thin on the Ear” isn’t thin by any means. It has three layers at the very least. There is an underlying tick tock of a beat, a slow-paced melody atop it, and then in between a slightly out-of-sync gurgle, all rumbly and hard to fully get a sense of, both as a result of its constant motion and it being out of sonic focus. They all strike the ear, collectively, as being akin to strata of biological development. The beat is purely mechanical, rote, while that gurgle seems primordial, maybe without consciousness but most certainly alive. The melody is the most developed, according to this structure. It is simple enough, just a note at a time, that it feels more eked out than composed, like it is finding its way, like something that has just pulled itself on land and is getting to know the territory. The tentative life forms find balance with the routinized machine."
The Tides Erase All Things
‘The Tides Erase All Things’ is the latest release from Ian Haygreen, self styled “Classically trained pianist who buggers around with electronic music in several genres as the mood fits”. The mood in this instance is revealed in a footnote that indicates this release is ‘Droneseries #1’; it’s a long-form piece comprising a single track weighing in at a stately 43 minutes.
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The world of drones is a broad church and I don’t feel we really have the vocabulary yet to properly describe and differentiate the various styles and approaches… but if you think that’s going to stop me then we clearly haven’t met. So as far as ‘Tides’ is concerned, this is very much at the ambient and accessible end of the spectrum, so if you are of a nervous disposition and not sure whether drones are for you, don’t worry, there are no road drills or bursts of radio static here.
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The piece starts with swirling overtones, synth filters rising and falling, and this motif continues throughout. The piece changes over time, but very gradually, almost glacially slowly.
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‘The Tides Erase All Things’ is a thing of fragile beauty; Ian Haygreen’s tides suggest an arctic sea, desolate and remote and cold. The music is largely in a minor key, with several ominous touches; nonetheless the mood is contemplative – danger is there, but alluded to, not signposted. For all the bleakness of the soundscape, the listener’s journey is not downbeat or depressive, but thoughtful and reflective.
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The best way to enjoy ‘Tides’ is to succumb to it, to wallow in it, inhale it. This is music that rewards your investment and your patience; as with much drone/ambient music, it is as much about the texture and the detail as it is about the broad strokes and to fully appreciate the music you should immerse yourself as far as possible.
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Put some time aside and listen to this beautiful, moody piece. You can thank me later.
"Imaginative soundscapes await you in Ian Haygreen's new release Utopia. Sonorous synth drones play in big sonic environments. Samples colour the pieces, furthering their cinematic quality.
The titles recall a plot of searching for "Utopia". There's no lyric, no traditional vocals, only recordings of conversations in the background as if a television was left on in the corner. Mellotronlike choral tones provide drama, ambiguity creates the story. It's an instrumental exploration.
In the notes, Ian mentions the inspiration for this was Tangerine Dream's mid-seventies stuff. I enjoyed Ian's take on it. Modern techniques creep in, and he produces a nice update of the ideas, which I found very well executed."
"Ah, yes totally right! It’s the perfect go for a walk electronic trip done by Ian Haygreen that’s perfectly titled ‘Walkies!‘. It’s making us feel like we are walking on another planet, planet Pluto (after all that’s a famous dog) and we are weightlessly exploring while delicious synthesizer sweetness decorates the place into a dog walker’s Valhalla. Peeing, sniffing, running and exploring never had the right soundtrack that it so deserved; until now! ."