Found this little gem -
Command line app for pulseaudio (https://github.com/graysky2/pulseaudio-ctl)
Works as advertised. I set up some keybindings in Xmonad.
Very nice find and thanks for the How To
8)
Messed with a bit more.
Have a look at the $HOME/.config/pulseaudio-ctl/config file that gets created when the program is first used. There are some options in there to use the desktop notification erc ...
Also note that first time it is run, the volume is set to 0. Using the command a second time to raise the volume gets the sound back.