Buddha Machine
(The Fader, Jun 2006)
Title: “Buddha Machine”
Publication: The Fader
Date: Jun 2006
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In ye olde Orient, Chinese Buddhist temples would resonate with monks’ voices intoning chants and sutras in an otherworldly chorus. Today the mantras are often electronic, produced by a gadget that plays sound-loops for easy, at-home drone-along. These cheap plastic soundboxes were the inspiration for the Buddha Machine, a unique musical creation of Beijing avant-musicians FM3 (Christiaan Virant and Zhang Ziang). Using the same simple technology (and pressed in a Guangdong factory alongside the real thing), Buddha Machine cycles one of nine hazy, hummy FM3 tracks until the double-A batteries or the DC power runs out—or until the end of time. Each loop is built from samples of traditional Chinese instruments like the ma tou qin (Mongolian horsehead fiddle), but sculpted into such pure soundglow that you’d never guess. The tones rise and fall, changing yet always the same—something like the reverberation of a gong inside the mallet that has struck it. The perfect gift for that someone seeking transcendental bliss—or, like, Brian Eno.