Sokushinbutsu is, according to the liner notes, "a particular Buddhist religious ritual practice from the 12th century until the early 1900s by various Japanese monks who, through a long and painful mental physical and food preparation which culminated in death, voluntarily predispose their body to a process of self mummification." The notes further explain that this disc "tries to create a sonic synthesis of the suggestions that this extreme ritual evokes inside both musicians. Every single song is made with synthesizer, samplers, voices, and magnetic tapes." Sokushinbutsu Project is the work of Massimo Mascheroni and Enrico Ponzoni. I was unfamiliar with either artist or this project, so let’s dive right in.
We kick off with "Holy Mountains," which is an interesting mix of repetitive, pulsing synthesizer, high pitched hiss and static, crushing noise blasts, and heavily distorted voice. This is noisy but never quite descends into harsh noise wall; the general feel is hypnotic. This track is meant to evoke the first phase of the journey where the monk progressively eliminates basic food from their diet. "Tree Eating" depicts the ritual of tree eating, when the monk starts eating bark, chestnuts, acorns, pine needles, and rocks. Toward the end of this phase, the monk drinks a tea from poisonous plants. This track begins with more of a dark ambient feel where it’s slow moving and not quite as noisy as the previous track. However this track progressively becomes more and more noisy until it’s straight harsh noise wall with heavily distorted screaming in it. "Deep Meditation" depicts the point at which the monk becomes locked up in an underground crypt. The monk rings a bell and the disciples know that the monk is no longer alive when they stop hearing it. The track opens with a bell and then moves into a track that is at times warbling and at other times screeching harsh noise, all with a bell striking intermittently throughout. The track ends with bells and then silence. "Self-Mummification" is meant to evoke the self mummification portion of the ritual. The track itself begins with what sounds like heavily distorted gargling and then sounds like an espresso machine on the fritz throughout. It ends with the sound of pulsing static.
Overall, this is an interesting concept and an interesting disc. If you’re looking for something that’s actually going to evoke the ideas of the ritual, it doesn’t really seem to track, with the exception of the bell in "Deep Meditation." However, taken apart from its concept, the music itself stands well on its own. If you like noisy music that is more on the composed side, rather than someone running feedback to six death metal pedals, this is well worth picking up. This album weighs in at around 51 minutes.