Comedian-actor-musician-writer Fred Armisen has announced a new album - but it’s not a collection of songs. Instead, 100 Sound Effects is almost precisely that (there are actually 101).
Each ‘track’ has a descriptive name - Trying Out an Electronic Drum Kit with Headphones at a Music Store, for example, or Walking into a Video Room at an Art Museum and Walking Out Quickly. We’re told that the album “can be used as a library, an industrial tool for your own entertainment projects, or simply for brain-stimulating deep listening”.
Explaining how the record came to be, Armisen said in a statement: “I was thinking about haunted house sound effects albums and how fun those seemed to record. I wanted to do it at Steve Albini’s studio in Chicago, Electrical Audio, but since this wasn’t a collection of songs and I didn’t know how long it was going to take, I needed to do this where I live, in Los Angeles.
“I told Steve what I was doing and asked if he knew of any engineers I could work with in LA He was very excited about the idea and asked Dave Grohl who might be available to help. Dave recommended Darrell Thorp, and we started working at Studio 606, and then later Sunset Sound. Darrell was really inventive and a lot of fun to work with. Because Steve was so instrumental in making this happen, I dedicate the album to his memory. I miss him every day [Albini died in 2024 after suffering a heart attack].”
100 Sound Effects will be released on 26 September but, by way of a teaser, Armisen has dropped a track, Music Venues, made up of content from the album.
You can check out the complete tracklisting and pre-order the record on the Drag City website.
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