Robert Henke

With all the attention and praise heaped upon FM3's buddha machine, I'm kinda surprised that this one has fallen under the collective radar out there. Henke, an established electronic musician as a member of Monolake and part of the team that put together the Ableton Software, has taken on the task of manipulating the famed Buddha Machine's loops into 10 hypnotic dronescapes. The pieces could be nothing more than tranquil but Henke seems to do more than just play the loops one on top of another as the title would suggest. More often that not each piece samples one of the loops and chops pieces and processes together into a completely new reverberation. Some even step up the machine's OM-inducing tempos and add a bit of tweak to the otherwise somber project. To further enhance the piece's appeal Henke has released the project in a run of 500 numbered 5x7" sets nicely packaged in an accompanying box, in addition to the standard CD copies. It splits up the effect as a whole but allows time to focus on each loop. Layering Buddha is out now on Henke's own Imbalance Computer Music.

Download:
[MP3] Robert Henke -Layer 004
[MP3] Robert Henke -Layer 006

And as an added bonus, if you couldn't get enough of the FM3 fervor; the collective has put together a CD of various music elite remixing and recontextualizing the loops of the Buddha Machine. The compilation, entitled Jukebox Buddha sees contributions from FM3 member Wang Fan, Sunn o))), Es, Henke, Sun City Girls and more.

Download:
[MP3] Es -3 Tietä Valojen Taa
[MP3] Sun City Girls -Dry Valley