Sound Animal Music

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 Sound Animal's music ranges feral beyond traditional human constraints.
 

From coverage of a single:  "Rampaging Metal: California’s Sound Animal brings the scorching heat with ‘Botulism Cafe’

Shredding the walls down one by one with a totally intoxicating ambiance that shall heighten all your inner senses out of any self-enforced slumber, Sound Animal ravages our previously-innocent ears with his latest track ‘Botulism Cafe‘.

There is a fiery explosion of blaring sounds from a truly possessed artist who is in the prime of his career – with the gusting winds of creativity roaring down on him – like a hungry Lion who needs a snack right now as his belly rumbles furiously. The ear-piercing energy is quite overwhelming at times, with a booming speaker-breaking force that is unlike anything heard so far in 2021. 

‘Botulism Cafe‘ from the experimental dark doom California-based solo artist Sound Animal, is an almost eight minute experience that shall have your over-stimulated mind feeling rather enraptured with this whole experience. This is loud, brash and in your face, with no let ups for a breath at all. Exactly the way it was intended after all." Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Instruments: Sound Animal uses electric guitars including Gibson The Paul II 1996, Schecter Stiletto Studio-5 bass, drum kit, one-off lap steel slide, bodhrán, dulcimers, a variety of bows including violin, voice, silver flute, Greek double shepherd's flute, harmonica, Indonesian suling, Bolivian triangle drum, pungi (snake charmer pipe), khaen (Thai mouth organ), melodica, recorder, double wind wand, penny whistle, slide whistle, boatswain's pipe, synth, jaw harp, and lots of found objects, sometimes electrified with external pick-ups, for example, electric tennis racket -- racket with an external pickup attached and run through pedals.

ReverbNation review of Skyfall: "The sound is incredibly uncomfortable and hard to listen to. It's awful and should be banned as torture. Worst thing I've heard on here ever."

Labels: Kryrart Ambient, Kryrart Records, Camembert Electrique, Cousin Silas Emporium, Dark Stereo, Sounds for the Soul Records.

Genres: These pages organize the songs according to approximation to genres and moods through the poetic allusions in the titles of the pages. At the bottom of the each page the inspiring genres are defined. Pages: Break Out is aggressive, bombastic, intense, loud prompting toward freedom. The Strangeness includes ambient scenes portrayed in dramatic locations and there's a surreal quality in these moods to inhabit. Dreaming of Sleep is heavier stuff a little more genre in the addictive styles like Psychedelic Stoner Doom. Guitar is mostly simple guitar alone, without any easily approximated genre. Most of the music includes experimental elements, at home in experimental radio shows such as R Duck's Sound Wheels, KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM. Other pieces are played on shows like It's Psychedelic, Baby! podcast by the Night Tripper.

Location: Berkeley, California. Collaborators on certain pieces live in many locations in and outside the US.

 

Audience: Mostly SoundCloud and Pandora, plus radio and podcasts. Listens on Spotify or YouTube, where Sound Animal is more obscure, are appreciated.

For Russian listeners: An interview in Russian by disko-je.

About: An Experimental California genre-defying band playing a wide variety of unexpected instruments. The pieces are often intense ambient spaces to inhabit, ranging from silly to dystopian. The project was founded by Rosemary Bensko (Sound Animal/SA) in June 2021, and SA produces the music. Most of the music is progressive through-composed fugue motifs with layers of polyphony.

There are some collaborations with various people under the Sound Animal moniker, such as Steve Gilmartin, Tom McCarthy (1), Igor Iofe, Psychedelic Maybem, MXD, Chris Nolte forthcoming, remixes by The Infinite Wimshurst, The Fall of Saigon) joint ventures - and XAW who improvised a lot with SA, and SA is still releasing it.

The Experimental music is influenced by Experimental Dark/Ambient, Psych Rock, Noise Rock, Doom, Drone, Romantic Era, and Schoenberg's Free Variation and sliding vocal innovations. The music is often heterophonic overdubbing, forming a wall of sound.  Nods to Earth, Swans, Caspar Brotzmann Massaker, Ty Segall. Sound Animal is at heart very heavy. But Sound Animal doesn't have big ol' stacks of amps or rehearsal space. So, Sound Animal makes apartment music.

Interviewer of: bands and musicians, primarily for Cave Dweller Music.
 

Singles:

There are an inordinate number of tracks released so far, all available on SoundCloud and Bandcamp and many on Pandora, Spotify,  YouTube, etc.

EPs:

1. Pandemic Assistance (complete with dissonance and bedbiting)

2. Epigenetic Roadtrip (deserty trip through your DNA fire)

3.Lost in Space with Babies (electro-acoustic space-rocky dark to light ambient) -- since removed. Should probably have kept it. Oh well.

4. Out Your Cages (dystopian inspirational for noble outlaws) heavy on the pungi, melodica and harmonica.

5. Treelife  (single instrumental piece that began with a jam with XAW on guitar and SA on bass. Then SA added layers with multiple instruments.


6. Fungal Cymbal (one abstract piece with XAW on guitar and SA on creative ambient percussion on a cymbal.)


7. Liminal The concept is liminal noise-spaces, and it includes collaborations with Igor Iofe, Steve Gilmartin, and XAW.
 

8. Water Jar Suite (five experimental ambient songs based on Chris Nolte's playing of a jar of water.) Only on Bandcamp and SoundCloud.

9. Nighten -- electroacoustic experimental dark ambient sexy dangerous city soundscapes.

Albums:

1. Cinematic tone stories that transport you to dramatic locations, like sleepwalking in the snow, the meowing nuns of France, or harvesting ice while the villagers do a folk dance, in NewSoundLand released by Kryrart Ambient November 30 2021 on Bandcamp.

2. Dystopian deathly Death of Ages with Kryrart Records July 10 2022 on Bandcamp. The albums are also available through Sound Animal's Bandcamp. You can keep track of Sound Animal's music by subscribing to new releases on Bandcamp.

3. By Voicelight  (melodic, accessible lyrical, poignant, sincere, singing)

4. Untameable (Experimental music based on creative acoustics.)

5. Unboxing (Experimental electronic dance) on Camembert Electrique label.

6. That's My Fish (Experimental music with XAW on guitar.) also on Camembert Electrique label

7. Real Strange Delusions (all character POV story songs) with Camembert Electrique Aug 2

Mr Jenkins  (Kosmische/ Experimental Psych Rock, with XAW trading off on drums and guitar, SA adding many layers as well) Camembert Electrique)

The Crystal Galleon (Experimental with XAW) on Camembert Electrique Aug 30
 

Run Play Now (Sound Animal X A.J. Kaufmann) Kosmische. https://soundcloud.com/soundanimal/sets/sound-animal-x-a-j-kaufmann

Compilations, Mixtapes, and Playlists

Interaction of Souls mix by disko_je with several Sound Animal songs.

"Made of Water" in Water 1 compilation album, Cousin Silas Emporium June 2023

"We Are Earth" in The Four Elements: Earth compilation album, Cousin Silas Emporium March 2023

"The Persistence of Forgetting" in Emporium Winter Collection compilation album 3 Jan 2023

 "Botulism Cafe" in Avant Void 1 holiday album

"March of the Syncophants" in the Darkstereo Compilation

"Made of Water" in Sounds for the Soul Record's Experimental Ambient compilation

On Long Drone/Noise on Spotify (along with Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Earthless, Sunn (((O))), Velvet Underground, Swans, Spacemen 3, Boris, Merzbow...) 

"Existential Skull" on 2nd Accident's Existential Ambient Mixtape on YouTube and MixCloud 

"Walk Your Mastodon" on Spotify Playlist 2021 Psychedelic Stoner Doom, Sludge Rock and Metal

"Listen Aloud" in Stoner Doom Sludge Psyche playlist on Spotify along with Bardo Pond and Earth
"Listen Aloud" on The General's Stoner Rock Army podcast

On various changing playlists, such as

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0n0BrChNxOdKSWaRFe8qw1
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Mzu5ZrD4JKMu1I9efaXEe
Sometimes in SoundCloud's charts, such as -- was number 7 in New And Hot Folk and Singer-Songwriter
 

Collaborators in Sound Animal: There are some collaborations with various people under the Sound Animal moniker. You can find the songs in the Coll-Aborations page.

The Fall of Saigon (4) joint venture-- France

Steve Gilmartin (6) -- California

Tom McCarthy of TM's Sundae Sauce (1)

Igor Iofe (1) Netherlands

Psychedelic Mayhem (1) joint venture  -- Poland

Gavin Saunders of The Infinite Wimshurst (2 remixes) -- UK

XAW, (26)  forthcoming albums as well -- California

Chris Nolte (5) Forthcoming EP, Water Jar Suite in which he plays water jar-- Washington

A.J. Kaufmann -- singles and also forthcoming Psych Rock/Kosmiche album, Run Play Now -- Poland
 

Sound Animal featured on other people's music --

SPRED (1) (Fiending Records)

TM's Sundae Sauce (1)

A.J. Kaufmann  Bard's Woman in the Cool of the Summer Breeze (4) (on CD from The Swamp Records)
A. J. Kaufmann Reversed Days
A.J. Kaufmann Global Zion

YouTube Music

The longest of the music videos