User:Whalefall/sandbox

Whale Fall is an instrumental rock band based in Los Angeles, California. Formed in 2008, the five member group, whose name derives from the biologic process by which a decaying whale carcass (whale fall) spawns a new sea life community includes members J-Matt Greenberg, Dave Pomeranz, Ali Vazin, Erik Tokle, and Aaron Farinelli.

Whale Fall's sound stems from a wide range of musical influences, from shoegaze to experimental rock to Ennio Morricone cinematic fare to the echoes of border town Americana replete with mariachi horns. Add to this mix the visuo-narrative influences of the group's external surroundings in the American West, the cultural milieu of Los Angeles, and the internal landscapes of their individual imaginations. This is the very concoction that gave rise to the band's second album, titled The Madrean, a collection of eight thematically linked compositions paying homage to the Madrean region of North America, the arid landmass spanning the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. With band members having spent their respective formative years in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and California, the Madrean Region is an inescapable internal and external space for Whale Fall, and the intersection of its urban and natural environs—from L.A. freeway overpasses to majestic Sierra peaks—serve as both the backdrop and the foreground of the music of The Madrean as well as the accompanying visual imagery.

The group's music is reaching new audiences with the inclusion of two Whale Fall tracks in the award-winning documentary Code Black, currently in wide release. This cinematic foray complements the numerous soundtrack credits attributable to the fivesome’s past projects, including The X-Files, Kiss of Death (1995), Up in the Air (2009 as Charles Atlas), promotional trailers for The Help (2011), and several independent films.