#1

Animals. I like them, and others do too. There is Donna Haraway who introduced the powerful concept of companion species I think already earlier than her book The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness. Derrida had meditations what it is to be naked in front of his cat in The Animal That Therefore I Am (More to Follow). Animal phenomenology is a thing, e.g. Nagel’s 1979 What is it like to be a bat? And so on and so forth.

Obviously animals feature in literature, the graphics arts like painting, graffiti and calligraphy, the plastic arts like sculpture, dance, science (the OncoMouse™), politics, cuisine, healthcare, sports, warfare…

There are Cats on Synthesizers in Space. There is the @animalsandsynthesizers on Instagram which is basically the best thing that has happened to Internet since cgi-bin, e.g.

There are videos online about cats and horses playing the piano.

I grew up around loads of animals, and when I was young I found to my pleasure the cats were mesmerized by Philus’ (Mika Vainio) Kolmio EP (Sähkö 1998) which i would play to they on vinyl :cat2:

Do you perform to (non-human) animals? Do you consider them band members, muses or even instruments? Or do they pee on your expensive modular setups, messing your vibe? An inspiring source for sampling, or perhaps for études in sound design like this fun one from @andrewhuang

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#2

When I bought the OP-Z i noticed myself to had been slightly surprised that it did not ship with any animal sounds on it (of course you can add your own sounds but that is another thing). I am absolutely obsessed with this crow sample used by Ikonika and others.

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#3

Obligatory Igorrr chicken post with a post like this! enjoy :slight_smile:

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#4

Nice one! I could imagine chickens would love to deconstruct a modular patch. The cables are a little like wormies :bug: right?

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#5

That would be fantastic! Especially if you put millet over it … if you don’t mind some chicken scratches and pecks on your panels!

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#6

A bit of wear and tear is just charisma, right?

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#7

David Rothenberg does improvisation along with animal sounds.

I performed with him once in a chamber-sized group on a festival and one of the things he said that gave me things to think about was slowing down the speed of birdsong. Somewhere in it was the idea of birds living quicker lives and communicating at a rate that was difficult for us to comprehend, but that if it is slowed down (but pitch maintained) then we have a chance to get inside the sound more.

There’s also a young woman who has done music with a tarantula that is controlling a Field Kit and if I find it I’ll post it here.

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#8

I used to have a couple of parakeets. Every once in a while I’d get deep into a serious jam and they seemed to respond by getting excited and having sex with each other.

Other times I’d be jamming in the back yard and the crickets would seem to be responding to my energy, but I could have just imagined that.

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#9

I keep meaning to buy this set of Animoog patches based on animal and insect waveforms:

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#10

They’re really nice!

#11

CATcerto!

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#12

There is this cat purring simulator too called Purrli. I wonder what cats :cat2:, or mice :rat: make of it.

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#13

I just tried it with a very content purring cat on the sofa and she reacted slightly, particularly to the miaow, but mostly just drowned it out. And demanded stomach tickling.

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#14

Ok, I already posted this in the tape thread this week, but I can’t not share this video of a chicken-based performance in response to this:

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#15

20 chrs of wholesome

#16

Heh, that’s lovely. I still hope to have the opportunity to keep chickens at some point.

I did a short track once with a synth voice mostly matching the cadence of the soft, sweet chatter of a hen (from a recording found on Freesound). I adjusted a couple of notes for less adventurous musical purposes. The title Chicken Shadow refers both to the process and to a personal memory that exceeds the scope of this thread (and is also an uninteresting anecdote).

Chicken Shadow in here

https://rustedtonerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/chicken-shadow

I had some other thoughts and wanted to read the rest of the thread, but now is inconvenient. Looking forward to reading it later.

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#17

i have yet to do a track personally with animals. Id like to sample my hamsters but they are very quiet. the only thing i could use is the patter of their feet or them chewing on cardboard!

That is the famous french musician Igorrr , i wish i could make music as good as him!

#18

Those would be good sounds to sample. I’ve kept tarantulas for many years and they typically move with such grace and slowness that they are in effect silent. They can clatter a bit when scuttling along a resonant surface. I certainly haven’t tried using one as a controller, as mentioned elsewhere in the thread. What an idea. As they often remain motionless for hours or days at a time, they could make for a cool chaotic element.

I keep tropical cockroaches as feeders for them, and those are far from silent. A contact microphone on their container when they receive vegetables is a good source of texture. I’ve recorded them over the years but have nothing new lately. With small children around, my home is presently too rarely quiet enough for sensitive recording projects.

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#19

The sounds of small children are well worth recording though.

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#20

I find this site useful for when my pets are having trouble communicating with foriegners.

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