I went along to an animation screening of a new band the other week by the name of ‘One eskimO’, an act that combines great, mellow music with stunning animation.

One eskimO is produced by Rollo from Faithless with animation created by Passion Pictures, the team behind Gorillaz. The band consists of four members in the form of a giraffe on the drums, a penguin as guitarist, a monkey on the bass and an eskimo as the lead singer.

Gigs comprise the band on stage with visuals on screen, with the potential to incorporate the animations into light shows. Adam, the drummer in the band has also suggested potentially triggering animations live on stage, just as audio samples are triggered during live performances. The animation has so far won a 2008 British Animation Award and the album ‘All Balloons’ is due out on June 1st, 2009.

Lead singer Kristian, who is a big fan of art and Japanese-style animation, came up with the idea of the characters. The first animations came together amongst friends, fresh out of university playing around on tablets, based at home. After winning an animation award, the band secured funding for further animations, working with Passion Pictures to the finished article.

Along with their gigs listed on their Myspace site, One eskimO plan to play some festivals this year, including at Glastonbury in the UK, so keep an eye out for them!

Moonape: Follow me on Twitter!