While most band’s get rich (or die trying) creating songs, albums and possibly “sounds,” Chinese auteurs of ambient FM3 attained their cult status the old fashioned way: by creating a physical, mechanical THING called the Buddha Machine which a listener could hold in the palm of their hand, cycling through a series of short ambient loops.
That all happened 12 years ago. And in the time between then and now, the machine has garnered praise from the type of people that an ambient machine ought to be getting noticed by: Brian Eno, Phillip Glass, Throbbing Gristle, and David Byrne, who described the instrument/machine as a glimpse into the future of how music will be distributed to fans and, more specifically, as:
… a transistor radio sized device that plays endlessly changing sounds, chosen by the program, from a given set of notes and sounds. There is, as one would expect, no arc to these compositions—no beginning, middle and/or end. They are merely states of being, not substitutes for narrative. These indeterminate scores can be viewed a bit like the literature that emerges out of oral traditions—the great epics and sagas.
Given a ringing endorsement like that, you’re probably sitting there wondering why you don’t have a Buddha Machine sitting in the palm of your hand and changing the goddamned Future of Music right now?
Well, there is good news, and there is Good News (all unrelated to Trump):
First, a Buddha Machine, despite being a piece of instrumentation from a distant future, is actually cheaper than most pieces of instrumentation from the past, about $20 in America.
Second, despite being a cult piece of machinery holding pride of place in the studios of Enophiles worldwide, VERY OWN machine can actually be bought relatively simply. In fact, there is a new generation of the Buddha Machine coming in December, and it’s available to pre-order at Bleep now in a color of your choice.
“Sick!” right? Totally. Go get one if you want one. Before David Byrne buys them all to use as doorstops.