Robert Haigh

★★★★ Human Remains UNSEEN WORLDS. DL/LP

The electronics innovator bids adieu with elliptical, pensive piano pieces.

Robert Haigh has come and gone through many phases in four decades. There was post-adolescent glam, then a post-punk foray. A flirtation with dark electronics led to his pioneering “ambient jungle” – graceful as it was aggressive – as Omni Trio. But after

Human Remains, the last instalment in a trilogy of brooding and beautiful piano albums, he intends to turn from music to painting for good. It’s an exquisite farewell, at least: several of these brief pieces, especially Twilight Flowers, feel like tenderly melancholy reflections on distant memories. Occasional electronics, as on Lost Albion, enhance that gentle sense of haunting. Stick around for two final flashes of brilliance. A piano line snags against a roaring string section on Baroque Atom, with Haigh teasing a climax that never comes. And the finale, On Terminus Hill, condenses Sigur Rós’ vintage grandeur into a short sigh that lingers, a bittersweet goodbye.