Tools for Thought

One of the occasionally unnerving aspects of working at home is the constant silence that becomes your frequent companion. The option of playing music can get tricky. Songs with vocals tend to steal attention from work. I have plenty of instrumental music, from classical to electronic avant-garde, but I find that there’s only so often that I can repeat tracks that I like during the day without going numb to them. After repeated use, a beloved music collection can easily turn into wallpaper

Recently I unearthed the Buddha Machine I purchased a couple of years ago, which buffets the sound of silence and acts as my muse. Released from the Chinese electronic music duo FM3, the Buddha Machine is basically a box the size of a first-gen iPod whose design is more reminiscent of portable transistor radios from the Seventies. There’s a speaker on the front, and the top contains a switch/volume control, a headphone jack and a DC adapter.

On the side of the box is a two-position switch that toggles to advance to the next of nine sound loops — simple electronic drones that stop short of rhythm and melody.

That’s it. Nine loops on a memory chip in a box with poor sound quality. It’s the lo-fi counterpoint to the iPod. Instead of a device you fill with more content every time you get bored with your last download, what you hear the first time you sample the Buddha Machine’s threadbare track selection is what you’ll get henceforth. The whole ethos of the device is that it’s complete in its minimalism.

There’s nothing to stop someone from creating similar loops as downloads for any digital audio player. In fact, if you want to hear the loops used in the Buddha Machine to get an idea of what it sounds like, you can download the WAV file and compress the tracks into your favorite format. Maybe there’s already of cottage industry of ambient loops for download with the same purpose in mind. But the Buddha Machine experience is as much the artifact as the disembodied content. It looks as cool as it sounds.

The device’s sound palate is fairly monochromatic, making it a practical alternative to music as a backdrop to working. It’s aural incense, a constant tint of sound designed to mute the silence that induces self-consciousness. If you find your inner monologue getting in your way more than assisting you in getting work done, or just unwinding, the Buddha Machine can function as a strategic way to interrupt your mental chatter. With the proper headphones, it’s also great for drowning out distractingly uptempo music in public venues.

The device is available in the US through Forced Exposure.