ABOUT

CHAINES (Cee Haines) is an Oram award winning composer, arranger, improviser, multi-instrumentalist and multimedia artist who writes surreal, fantastical electronic and electro-acoustic music.

 

As a classically trained musician with broad musical tastes, CHAINES’ work embraces both the beauty of acoustic instruments and the vast potential of digital technologies. Recent works such as The Rite of Autopsy (featuring GBSR Duo) and Crystalqueer (in collaboration with Liza Bec) combine skillful instrumentalism with live signal processing and sound reactive visuals to create immersive, ambitious, one-of-a-kind musical experiences. The live, semi improvised version of their 2018 album The King (described by Robert Barry in The Wire as ‘vast in scope, rich in execution’), premiered at TUSK music festival (The Sage, Newcastle, 2018), was described by The Guardian as ‘a mesmeric collage of ecclesiastical beauty and creeping dread’. CHAINES' fascination with  art and technology has additionally lead them into the realms of visual art and game design, creating the esoteric Beethoven Simulator for Classical Remix in 2021. 

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CHAINES is also an imaginative orchestrator and arranger who has worked on numerous BBC Proms projects with the conductor Rob Ames and the London Contemporary Orchestra. Past BBC Proms orchestration projects include Anoushka Shankar's Chapters (2025), JADE and the Royal Northern Sinfonia at The Glasshouse(2025), the Everything Everywhere All At Once Suite for 'Reel Change' (2024) and Tribute to Pokémon, Ecco and Secret of Mana Suite for 'From 8 Bit To Infinity' (2022).  They have also arranged orchestral forces for artists such as Speaker’s Corner Quartet (2024) and violinist Galya Bisengalieva (2024).

 

CHAINES has been in residency at Studio Richter Mahr (May 2023) following the release of SRM’s Free & Equal Vol. 1, to which they contributed the track Odd Postcard. They have also been in residency at The Glasshouse (Summer Studios, 2023), at Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry with SAY award winner Anna Meredith (Brighter Sound, 2016) and at Band on the Wall with Grammy Award winner Imogen Heap (Brighter Sound, 2016).

CHAINES is currently undertaking doctoral research at the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, UK), where they also teach Sound Art and Composition with Technology.