There is a new album coming from the creators of the Buddha Machine, the tidy little looping box that gained renown as a consumer-grade piece of sound art. This would be the China-based duo of Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian, collectively known as FM3.
Titled *Ting Shuo* (or, in Chinese, å¬è¯´), the forthcoming album is a six-track collection, one track of which is currently available for download in advance of the November 2 full release. The initial piece of music to be shared is the title track, “Ting Shuo,” which layers slow-moving strings above a lightly pulsing beat. It plays like something from a particularly reflective moment in a Michael Mann film.
In an announcement about the record, FM3 notes that this is the group’s first full-length album in a decade, though of course in that same time they’ve introduced several generations of Buddha Machines and related devices. The [Bandcamp page](https://buddhamachine.bandcamp.com/) for the album shares the following information by way of listing instrumentation: “Cello, Steinway Grand Piano and a vintage Roland keyboard meet for this journey of melody, mood and meditation.” There’s also a brief note about the origins of the work: “*Ting Shuo* evolved during a series of concerts across China and Hong Kong in 2013-14. It was recorded in hotel rooms and studios along the way and mastered in Berlin by Kassian Troyer.”
More on *Ting Shuo* at [buddhamachine.bandcamp.com](https://buddhamachine.bandcamp.com/). More from FM3 at [fm3buddhamachine.com](http://www.fm3buddhamachine.com/) and [twitter.com/buddhamachine](https://twitter.com/buddhamachine).