Hamfam Soundscape Transcript

Welcome to earlobe calming
a collection of desperate, vulnerable, and collaborative acts.

This is a soundscape for the island of Hamfam in the video game Animal Crossing New Horizons proposed by my friend and collaborator Cole Steffenson. Animal Crossing is a relaxing life simulator game where you invest time and energy into building the island community where you live and forming relationships with your island neighbors. There are a number of sonic elements to the game you can add to your island. The game has 110 songs by a musical dog named K.K. Slider that can be played on a number of different speakers, all of which have unique sound quality. In addition, the game has gyroids, small noisemaker objects that can interact and play in rhythm with KK’s songs. Cole’s task for me was to use all of these elements to create a sonic landscape that would augment the themed areas he has built into his island like a swanky beachfront spa, a mine filled with gnomes, and a maze that takes you through the entire island. Putting this together was a truly collaborative effort, with both Cole and I working to source speakers, songs, and gyroids within the game and, since Hamfam is Cole’s island, he had to do the legwork of actually putting everything in place so and I really appreciate how down he was to work together. For the finished soundscape, Cole paid $50.

What follows is an audio recording Cole took walking around his island. If you want, I’d encourage you to close your eyes, lay back, and let the music and sound paint a picture. If you’re one of these folks that uses sound to study or sleep I’d imagine this would be useful for that as well. Some things to listen for: the song you’re hearing KK sing now now is the theme for the bear and flamingo lovers that recur through Hamfam’s landscape and you can hear it pop up several times. For the island’s maze I picked three songs that increase in intensity and tempo as you continue through the maze so try to see if you can pick them out. Otherwise, if you happen to have Animal Crossing yourself, you can use Hamfam’s Dream Address in the episode description to experience everything firsthand.

So without further ado, please enjoy the Hamfam Soundscape.

If you listened all the way through, thank you for doing so and I hope you enjoyed your time in Hamfam. If you’d like to propose a project for Earlobe Calming you can do so at gabriel.town/earlobe and click on C for create. Thank you for your help.