Buddha Machine—Infused Soundscape MP3

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Buddha Machine—Infused Soundscape MP3

[ July 20, 2009 / Department: downstream / Comment: 1 ]

Let’s start the week with another in the ever-growing catalog of Buddha Machine”“infused ambient projects. This one, the full-length album Complex Silence 2, by Gordon MacMillan (under the name Tange), provides two half-hour transits into meditative space. The album consists of a complementary pairing of ancient and modern. Track one (MP3) takes as its source material prayer bowls, and track two (MP3) the of-the-moment descendant of sonic ritual tools, the Buddha Machine (a series of short loops housed in a cheap plastic box).

Both tracks unfold as rapture-on-slo-mo: thin layers of casually ecstatic sound that don’t seem to get any louder, even as you turn up the volume. The key distinguishing characteristic is that the prayer-bowl piece includes the percussive sound of a bell being struck, while the Buddha Machine piece is endlessly soft. Kudos to MacMillan for keeping both tracjs free of space-music cliche, and for making a Buddha track in which the now familiar loops manage to get lost.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/tmth05A/tmth05A-tange-01-ancient_bridge_part_1.mp3|titles=”Ancient Bridge Part 1″|artists=Tange (Gordon MacMillan)] [audio:http://www.archive.org/download/tmth05A/tmth05A-tange-02-ancient_bridge_part_2.mp3|titles=”Ancient Bridge Part 2″|artists=Tange (Gordon MacMillan)]

The album (downloadable at archive.org) was produced by Phillip Wilkerson. More on Tange/MacMillan at myspace.com/complexsilence.

By Marc Weidenbaum

[ Tags: copyleft, free, netlabel / Comment: 1 ]

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By Complex Silence 2 Review atÂ Disquiet « P h i l l i p W i l k e r s o n on May 6, 2010 at 4:37 pm

[…] 29, 2009 Many thanks to Marc Weidenbaum at Disquiet for his review of the recent Tange release, Complex Silence 2. Posted by philwilkerson Filed in Reviews & […]

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Marc Weidenbaum founded the website Disquiet.com in 1996 at the intersection of sound, art, and technology, and since 2012 has moderated the Disquiet Junto, an active online community of weekly music/sonic projects. He has written for Nature, Boing Boing, The Wire, Pitchfork, and NewMusicBox, among other periodicals. He is the author of the 33 1⁄3 book on Aphex Twin’s classic album Selected Ambient Works Volume II. Read more about his sonic consultancy, teaching, sound art, and work in film, comics, and other media
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Jochen on A Truly Ethereal Chorus: “Money. When the Truck Radio Rain thing came out I wondered what I would find on the local airwaves after… ”

Jochen on Icelandic Meow Echolocation: “This reminds me of the Levy distribution: https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna18684016 Funny enough, their “free will” is just another algorithm, and behavioral geneticists… ”

Gahlord on A Rainy Night in Japan: “This combination of sound/video/walk brings to mind a bunch of sound walk things, like a remote version of them almost.… ”

Riccardo Berdini on Disquiet Junto Project 0489: The Prestige: “This is an amazing initiative. Such programmes help the artist to create a best version of their work. Nice suggestion… ”

Jason Richardson on Current Favorites: Unreal Real Birds + Video Game Birds: “Glad you listened to the lyrebird! It was such a thrill to see and hear their performance after many of… ”

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