Robert Henke

𝙁𝙤𝙧 𝘼𝙄-𝟰𝟭 𝘼𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙡 𝙄𝙣𝙙𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙖 𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙮𝙡 𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙪𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙍𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙩 𝙃𝙚𝙣𝙠𝙚'𝙨 𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙛𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙥𝙩 𝙖𝙡𝙗𝙪𝙢 '𝙇𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘽𝙪𝙙𝙙𝙝𝙖'. 𝘼𝙣 𝙚𝙧𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣, '𝙇𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝘽𝙪𝙙𝙙𝙝𝙖' 𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙖𝙥𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙘𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙬𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝙣𝙖𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙩, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧-𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨. 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙃𝙚𝙣𝙠𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙢𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛.

Originally released in 2006, 'Layering Buddha' began with a curious encounter with the 'Buddha Machine' - a pocket-sized, battery powered playback device that, over the past two decades, has quietly achieved a cult status around the world. Conceived by the Beijing-based group FM3 (Christiaan Virant, Zhang Jian), the machine takes inspiration from Tibetan Buddhist prayer boxes and consists of nine sound loop compositions of varying length, which can be toggled with a single switch. Due to low production cost and manufacturing imperfections, each Buddha Machine is unique, giving slight variations in sound, pitch and duration.

Using a state of the art A/D converter Henke made high quality recordings from a single machine, providing the source material for the album. Through various processing and arrangement methods, new pieces emerged, most of them all deriving from a single source loop. The pieces were then set up on the computer as generative arrangements, living as continuously permutating structures that could theoretically go on forever - just as the loops do within the Buddha Machines…