Samuel Baca-Henry (he/him) is a vegan musician and writer living in Seattle.
Music
Lullabies & Lamentations is Samuel Henry's debut album of ecstatic melancholic compositions for blown-out piano, organ, and electric bass.
"A phased-out, distorted, and overdriven piano instrumental...a cathartic release from Samuel Henry." -Jonathan Herweg (Blurred and Obscured, WFMU)
The album will be released on cassette in early 2024 by Mistake By the Lake Records, based in Cleveland.
Dustin Williams (Tarsier Eyes Audio) mastered the album and provided additional instrumentation.
Since 2006, Samuel also plays solo music under the name Plastic Boner Band. From 2014-15, he was a member of the Seattle-based dreampop band somesurprises. He performs live in collaborative projects such as 👽 and Contact Mike.
Samuel has released music on labels such as Catholic Tapes, Dokuro (Italy), Anabolic Dimensions, Earjerk Records, Power Silence, Hum and Hiss (Ukraine), Postmoderncore (New Zealand), and more.
In 2009, pioneering Italian industrial musician Maurizio Bianchi selected Samuel's remix for inclusion on an album released by Jan-Morten Iversen's TIBProd. label (Norway).
Samuel has performed live across the United States, sharing the stage with artists such as Peaking Lights, Circuit des Yeux, Ya Ho Wha 13, Ryley Walker, Ben Baker Billington/Quicksails, Sete Star Sept, Brett Naucke, Plastic Crimewave Sound, r33k, La Otracina, Matthew Wascovich, Mark Solotroff, Aaron Dilloway, Kole Galbraith, Locrian, Jason Soliday, Scott Colburn, Burial Hex, Treetops, SIXES (Ryan Jencks of Deathroes/Crash Worship), and many more.
The album art & layout is recycled from/inspired by the August 1900 edition of The Land of Sunshine, a literary magazine published in California. The painting is by William Keith, a Scottish-American artist associated with Tonalism and the American Barbizon school.
Follow his music on Instagram here.
Writing
Lament of Hathor
Samuel is writing a lamentation from the Ancient Egyptian cow goddess Hathor.
Drawing on and subverting Ancient Egyptian literature, mythology, religion, archaeology, and anthropology, Hathor speaks from an animal liberation/vegan perspective on behalf of the exploited cows and other animals (and oppressed humans).
She is joined by cow goddesses/gods, sacred cows, and prophets from several other cultures, religions, and literary traditions (e.g. Kamadhenu, Goshorun, Astarte, Zechariah, Zoroaster, and many more).
Samuel has given invited talks on philosophy at Rutgers University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Utah (co-keynote alongside David Chalmers).
Writing is in progress. Email Samuel at samuelhenry@gmail.com if you are interested in reading drafts or learning more.
Follow his writing on Instagram here and on Youtube here.