Put aside any prejudice against the beatnik-ish concept of Animals & Giraffes, founded on the poetry of Claudia La Rocco and the tenor & clarinet of Phillip Greenlief. Just listen to the effect of her deadpan line repetitions and emotional excisions, and how Greenlief’s winds complement them with spare subtlety. –Greg Burk, Metal Jazz

I met musician/composer Phillip Greenlief when we were in residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in 2013. We began collaborating almost immediately, and later created animals & giraffes, an ever-changing ensemble that explores how improvisation on and off the page can create different conversations between sound, text, and other disciplines.

Our debut album, JULY (Edgetone Records, 2017), features David Boyce (voice, tenor saxophone, electronics); Dapplegray: Nava Dunkelman (percussion), Jeanie Aprille Tang (electronics), Tara Sreekrishnan (piano); Evelyn Davis (prepared piano); Aurora Josephson (voice); Tim Perkis (electronics); Jon Raskin (baritone saxophone); John Shiurba (guitar); and Karen Stackpole (gongs, percussion).

Landlocked Beach (Creative Sources, 2018) was recorded as a live broadcast with Jon Leidecker on Over the Edge at KPFA FM in Berkeley on March 10th, 2017. A 73-minute trio edited by Leidecker (electronics, live sampling), it features Thomas Dimuzio’s disembodied voice.

Our third album, animals & giraffes live @ medicine for nightmares (Evander Music, 2023), is an ensemble performance with Kyle Bruckmann (oboe, English horn, electronics); Alexandra Buschman-Román (electronics, voice); and Adriana Camacho Torres (contrabass, voice). Recorded live by Philip Perkins at Medicine for Nightmares in the Mission on 9/28/22, it features album art by Teresa Baker.

We were 2017-2018 ensemble in residence at the Center for New Music, where we hosted monthly happy hours with musicians, visual artists, writers, and dancers. Additional guest a&g artists include Laurie Amat, John Bischoff, Chris Cooper, Dominic Cramp, Shana Crawford, Tom Djll, James Fleming, Gabby Fluke-Mogul, Jesse Hewit, Laurel Jenkins, Jmy James Kidd, Jon Kinzel, Kip Kipperman, Kelly Lovemonster, Rashaun Mitchell, Julie Moon, Amanda Nadelberg, Kim Nucci, Tara Jane Oneil, Silas Riener, Danishta Rivero, Brian Rogers, Tom Swafford, Amy Trachtenberg, Anne Walsh, and Zachary James Watkins. We’ve performed at The Chocolate Factory (NYC); AS220 (Providence); Amalgam Presents at Cafe Mustache (Chicago); Pieter (Los Angeles); the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; Reed College (Portland); Backspace (Bloomington, Indiana); The Luggage Store Gallery; and CounterPulse (SF), among other spaces.