When looking at the album “100 Sound Effects” by Fred Armisen for the first time, I didn’t understand at first how it could be 39 minutes long. My personal definition of a “sound effect” was a brief sound that stops just as quickly as it starts. As I started listening, however, I began to realize that Armisen’s definition of a sound effect was much more broad, yet nonetheless valid. “100 Sound Effects” is almost exactly what one would expect: a collection of sounds and soundscapes that one would hear in their daily life. According to the album’s Bandcamp page, “100 Sound Effects is an album that can be used as a library, an industrial tool for your own entertainment projects, or simply for brain-stimulating deep listening.” I decided to listen to all of the sound effects in order without any breaks.
One important thing to note: I listened to the album on Spotify. On Spotify, the album’s sound effects are compiled into nine longer tracks, each named after the general category the groups of sound effects fall into, such as “Planes” or “Museum and Travel.” While these compilations are useful if one wants to listen to each group of sound effects in one sitting, as I did, they take away one of my favorite parts of this album: the titles Armisen has given each sound effect. They range from basic (such as “Needle on Record”) to humorous and oddly specific (such as “Terrified Audience at an Authoritarian Nation Official Event”), and add even more character to an album that is already full of it. All of the titles are on the album’s Bandcamp page. I kept consulting this list of titles as I listened to each compilation track.
Despite what they take away, the compilations do provide a pleasant framework for review. Here are some of the compilations that stood out to me the most for one reason or another.
“Theater and Glass”
This compilation includes multiple variations of two of life’s most ubiquitous sound effects: crowd reactions and glass breaking. Among the numerous soundscapes of audiences talking and drinkware shattering into pieces, there is a pair of sound effects titled “Fake Applause” and “Fake Booing.” Both start with the sound of a director going, “And … action!” Staged applause/booing follows and only ends when the director says, “Cut.” I find these two particular sound effects serve as an interesting contrast to the other instances of applause and booing in the compilation. They are both more obviously staged than the sound effects that accompany them. Perhaps Armisen is trying to make a point here about the general nature of sound design and the inherent difference between artificial and natural sounds.
“Campfire and Leisure”
This is my personal favorite compilation because of how genuinely human it is. It includes some of the album’s most mundane sounds, from “Jacket Zipper” to “Basketball Bouncing,” but it also includes my favorite sound effect on the album overall: “Campfire Conversation,” which is exactly what it sounds like — a conversation between two people around a campfire. The topic is basic: the absurd security practices of an unknown place they both attended. It’s something that one wouldn’t particularly think of as a “sound effect.” After all, people have conversations every day. Yet those conversations produce sound all the same.
“Haunted House”
This compilation has some of the album’s most unusual inclusions, in my opinion. They stick out to me because the sound effects on the rest of the album feel more grounded in reality and off-the-cuff, whereas these sound effects are more purposefully constructed. I doubt Armisen entered an actual haunted house to record these. Still, they are delightful to listen to. Mix them with some spooky music and you’ve got some perfect ambient backing tracks for your own haunted house. My personal favorite sound effect from this compilation was “Haunted House Ghost but Nobody is Home.”
“Museum and Travel”
The name of this compilation is a bit misleading; there is only one sound effect that takes place in a museum, titled “Walking into a Video Room at an Art Museum and Walking Out Quickly,” which is exactly what it sounds like. That aside, this compilation has many sounds that I had never heard before, such as “Dublin Street Crossing” or “European Hotel Elevator.” They answered questions that I didn’t even know I had. As a bonus, this compilation includes a surprise 101st sound effect — “Fred Walking to Control Room.”
Overall, I viewed the album as a sort of pleasant meditation on noticing the world around oneself. There are so many sounds that we hear in our daily lives that we think of as simply blending into the background, and yet these sounds are what make up the background of daily life. It was nice to be reminded of that fact.
