Haiku Salut are an instrumental dream-pop-post-folk-neo-everything trio from the Derbyshire Dales. The group consists of multi-instrumentalists Gemma Barkerwood, Sophie Barkerwood, and Louise Croft. Between them, Haiku Salut play accordion, piano, glockenspiel, trumpet, guitar, ukulele, drums, and melodica. Their music also features electronic elements, which they refer to as “loopery and laptopery”.

Influenced by the evocative film soundtracks of Yann Tiersen and Benoît Charest, the genre-melting electronica of early Múm, and the impressionistic writing of Haruki Murakami, the band released their debut album Tricolore in 2013, to critical acclaim. The album was awarded four stars by The Guardian, Uncut, Mojo, Drowned In Sound, and many more, and in the summer of 2013, the trio won the Green Man Rising contest, and opened the main stage at that year’s Green Man Festival. In November 2013, the band toured the UK in support to Lau. They later wrote about the experience in their debut book, “Japanese Poems Steal Brains”, a fully illustrated collection of haikus, which told the story of the band to date.

Haiku Salut’s second album, “Etch And Etch Deep”, was released in July 2015, to similar acclaim. The album was awarded four stars or above by The Observer (“the album Four Tet might have made after Rounds’), The Guardian, Mojo, Uncut (“both warmly familiar and completely, fearlessly new”), NME, Clash, Drowned In Sound (“with luminous vibes and electronics that chime, strum, sparkle, dance and glow, the trio evoke worlds within our own”), The Financial Times, God Is In The TV, Gig Soup (“one has to wonder if the band haven’t only created a masterpiece but also a genre that is their own”), The 405, London In Stereo, The Skinny, and many more.

Haiku Salut are famed for their mute performances, allowing the music to cast its magical spell. One memorable live review described them as “an experimental orchestra made of loop pedals, accordions, melodicas, and god knows what else. It feels like watching Mary Poppins pull another instrument out of a never-ending bag.” Their esteemed live shows have seen them perform in the UK, France, Sweden, Norway, Germany and Japan.

In April 2013, the trio debuted their Lamp Show, in which they are accompanied by a stageful of vintage lamps which are programmed to flash, fade and flicker in time to the music. The band have since toured the Lamp Show around the UK, playing in a host of unusual venues – a library, a ballroom, a theatre, a Victorian swimming baths, and several churches.

In 2017 Haiku Salut collaborated with Public Service Broadcasting on the song ‘They Gave Me a Lamp’ which features on the album Every Valley. They guested on Public Service Broadcasting’s UK tour which culminated in a performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

August 2018 saw the band write and perform an original piece of music with Manchester Robot Orchestra. This was performed at The Centre for Life in Newcastle and was commissioned by Brighter Sound as part of the Hexagon Experiment at the Great Exhibition of the North. The performance explored creativity in the age of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Haiku Salut’s third album ‘There Is No Elsewhere’ was released on 7th September 2018 on PRAH Recordings reaching no.7 in both the Record Store Chart and the Independent Album chart. “Formidable and fragile, beautiful and fascinating” – Drowned In Sound. “Exactly what electro-pop can and should sound like in 2018” – Exclaim

In 2019 the band dipped their toes into the world of live scoring. They have written an original contemporary score to Buster Keaton’s 1926 film ‘The General’ as part of the BFI’s Comedy Genius season, and performed this in the UK, Northern Ireland and Estonia. The double LP of this score titled ‘The General’ was also released in 2019.

Haiku Salut frequently collaborate with audio visual artists Aaron Bradbury and Robin Newman. In 2018 they created a virtual reality immersive video for single, Occupy which was accompanied by a series of virtual reality events across the country. They also collaborated an audio / visual installation “A Cabinet of Future Ghosts” which toured the UK in 2020 as part of “Super Cool Drawing Machine: A Musician’s Art Show” curated by Yuppie’s Music.

‘The Hill, The Light, The Ghost’ is the band’s fifth full length album was released in 2021. “Definitive in its execution and unrivaled by any of the group’s contemporaries, it’s a masterful exercise in experimentation - Under the Radar” The album was supported by a long awaited UK tour supported by PRS Foundation’s Women Make Music fund.

In 2022 the band collaborated with improv pianist Meg Morley on a live score to 1930s German silent film ‘People on Sunday’. Flatpack Film Festival commissioned the debut performance in Birmingham, and the follow up show was at the Barbican in London. The score is currently lost.

In 2024 Sophie was awarded ‘Developing Your Creative Practice’ funding from the Arts Council to learn about music programming and coding, coupled with eco field recordings in music. Whether she can use the sound of composting worms in music composition remains to be seen.

2025 saw the band announce their involvement with ‘Sound and Colour Collective’ in collaboration with artist Katy McCabe. ‘Sound and Colour Collective’ are an arts and music based group who tour festivals and UK venues to encourage the exploration of expression in music, field recordings, and colour.