A more alternative offering today that caught our ears is from the Finnish multi-talented Khan, a music producer, performer, actor and visual artist who has been based in Berlin since 2002. He has appeared in many guises but for his latest release he has returned from outer-space in the guise of a bearded nun. The Enlightenment Machine is released on the German based ‘Album Label’ on Mar 21, 2014. This really is an eclectic offering inspired by Brion Gysin’s Dream Machine. Gysin, a painter, writer, sound poet, and performance artist took up residence in the famous Beat Hotel of Paris in 1958…also home at the time to his friend and author William S Burroughs. Prior to this Gysin had set up a restaurant in Morocco called The 1001 Nights which was frequented by Burroughs drawn in by the fire jugglers and a lot more besides.
To cut a long story short Brion Gysin created a contraption called the Dream Machine which used a turntable, a lamp and a cover that had symmetrical patterns cut into it. The idea was that you sat in front of it with your eyes closed and that the patterns thrown by the strobing light onto your eyelids stimulated the brains alpha patterns to produce a natural high. You can watch it below (keep our eyes open…we don’t want you all spacing out in work) and I’m sure if you hunt around the internet you can find enough detail to make one yourself.
According to the PR The Enlightenment Machine is similar in that it is based on a series of siren grooves, Khan intersperses the new tracks with dense layers of dub reverb, live percussion, lots of (sub-)bass and some spectral- sounding cello recordings (contributed by Julia Kent from NYC). Once put in motion, “The Enlightenment Machine” works just like Gysin’ s “Dream Machine”: All you need to do is sit down in front of it, close your eyes and get illuminated. It’s a simple procedure that also works for larger groups.
Here’s a small taster on Soundcloud