What is it?
The Buddha Machine is a small plastic box that plays meditative music composed by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian.
Since its introduction in 2005, the Buddha Machine has won global praise for its novel approach to music enjoyment and has been used in hundreds of recording and performance projects from a wide range of artists.
The original Buddha Machine was released in 2005. It features nine tracks and comes in 7 colours.
Buddha Machine 2.0 was released in November 2008. It offers an additional 9 pieces of hypnotic music and adds a pitch-control, which allows you to change the speed of the music to suit your mood.
Buddha 3, dubbed Chan Fang 禅房, was released in winter 2010. It boasts higher audio quality and four long loops of Chinese classical music composed and recorded on the ancient Gu Qin.
Here is what a few other people say about the machine:
“It’s bliss” (The Washington Post)
“Beautifully useless” (New York Times)
“Addictive, spellbinding, hypnotic” (Santa Fe Reporter)
“Defiantly rough” (Wall Street Journal)
“Mesmerizing” (Pop Matters)
“I can’t stop playing with it” (Pitchfork)
Who made it?
In 2004, FM3 was commissioned by the Louvre museum in Paris to provide a new soundtrack for the 1930s film “La Croisiere Jaune.” The project concluded with three live performances at the Louvre Auditorium.
The first-generation FM3 Buddha Machine loop player was named one of the best “boxed sets” of 2005 by the New York Times. In 2011, The Washington Post put the third-generation Buddha Machine at the top of its holiday buying guide for music lovers. “It’s bliss,” the paper said.
Here is what Wikipedia says about the band and the Buddha Machine.
The Buddha Machine is a small plastic box that plays meditative music composed by Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian.
Since its introduction in 2005, the Buddha Machine has won global praise for its novel approach to music enjoyment and has been used in hundreds of recording and performance projects from a wide range of artists.
The original Buddha Machine was released in 2005. It features nine tracks and comes in 7 colours.
Buddha Machine 2.0 was released in November 2008. It offers an additional 9 pieces of hypnotic music and adds a pitch-control, which allows you to change the speed of the music to suit your mood.
Buddha 3, dubbed Chan Fang 禅房, was released in winter 2010. It boasts higher audio quality and four long loops of Chinese classical music composed and recorded on the ancient Gu Qin.
Here is what a few other people say about the machine:
“It’s bliss” (The Washington Post)
“Beautifully useless” (New York Times)
“Addictive, spellbinding, hypnotic” (Santa Fe Reporter)
“Defiantly rough” (Wall Street Journal)
“Mesmerizing” (Pop Matters)
“I can’t stop playing with it” (Pitchfork)
Who made it?
The Buddha Machine was designed by Zhang Jian and Christiaan Virant in Beijing, China. They work together under the band name FM3.
In addition to the Buddha Machine, FM3 creates music for film, television, multi-media art exhibits and has an extensive discography on various labels around the world.
FM3 has been called “the most prominent experimental act in China” by US magazine Grooves. The UK magazine The Wire calls FM3 live sets “meditative,” “soothing” and “engagingly intimate.”In 2004, FM3 was commissioned by the Louvre museum in Paris to provide a new soundtrack for the 1930s film “La Croisiere Jaune.” The project concluded with three live performances at the Louvre Auditorium.
The first-generation FM3 Buddha Machine loop player was named one of the best “boxed sets” of 2005 by the New York Times. In 2011, The Washington Post put the third-generation Buddha Machine at the top of its holiday buying guide for music lovers. “It’s bliss,” the paper said.
Here is what Wikipedia says about the band and the Buddha Machine.
