Buddha Boxing With The Buddha Machine

In case you’re not an experimental music nerd, let us brief you on The Buddha Machine. This beguiling little music box was released in 2005 by FM3 and received high acclaim from critics and musicians in the sound art scene. It featured just nine tracks of meditative music composed by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian and came in seven different colors—that’s it. And yet in spite of, or perhaps because of, its simplicity it possessed an addictive and transfixing quality that quickly made it a favorite toy amongst music aficionados and a playful gadget for live performance.

Versions 2.0 and 3.0 made some modest improvements, adding better audio quality, some new experimental and classical Chinese music, as well as the ability to control pitch and speed. Still, the little plastic box maintains the same minimalist principles and functions as the original.

The Buddha Machine was originally produced as a portable sound player that provides meditation chanting for praying anytime, anywhere. FM3 suggested that their Buddha Machine can be carried around like an iPod for occasional listening and to be played as an improvisational instrument. The nine chanting recordings function as nine musical loops and when several machines are played together, the combination of loops spontaneously create soft and textual sounds providing a rich soundscape. Like a collage, the overlapping of different loops allows an endless range of melodies.

This performance technique has been termed “Buddha Boxing” and is the primary technique featured on FM3’s upcoming remix album, to be released this November, which combines an impressive collective of experimental and alternative Chinese musicians including B6, Sulumi, Li Jianhong, Wan Xiaoli, Dou Wei, and Top Floor Circus, among others.

Four tracks off the album, called HeXieFu are already online and you can listen to the Buddha fight below.

窦唯@和谐福 － 和无题 Dou Wei – HeWuTi by buddha machine

孙大威@和谐福 － 出于理性 Sulumi – ChuYuLiXing (HeXieFu remix) by buddha machine

顶楼的马戏团@和谐福 － 越来越快 Top Floor Circus – Faster and Faster by buddha machine

林强@和谐福 － 勝意樂 Lim Giong – ShengYiLe by buddha machine