The Formless Track by Arman Ray + Hyon Gak : Album Review
Arman Ray + Hyon Gak’s newest album, ‘The Formless Track’, is an electronic record inspired by Zen Buddhism. There are twelve songs totaling over forty minutes in this collection. Chris Taylor (aka Arman Ray), a fine artist and music producer from the United Kingdom who practices Soto Zen, teamed up with Buddhist monk Hyon Gak Sunim to create a Zen-like music collection that would promote the theory and practice to a wider audience.
‘Mind Habit’ is the opening cut on the album. The electronic music in the song has a throwback feel. The spoken word poem over this reflects philosophically on the feedback cycle caused by causality. The second song, ‘Dreaming With Eyes Wide Open’, continues the melody from the previous one. The melodies and rhythms here are stronger and more energizing thanks to the use of more powerful instruments. With the fourth song, ‘This Infinity of Now’, we experience a shift in mood. The arrangement here is tranquil as the philosophical and spiritual philosophy is being spun. On the sixth track, ‘Stop and Go’, the momentum slows as the music slows down. The perfect amount of spoken word complements the twangy guitars and sirens that are prominent in ‘Dust Thinking’. The album’s title track perfectly summed up the mood and sound of the whole thing. The first few seconds of ‘Right Here, Right Now’ have a New Jack swing-style rhythm. This song’s arrangement is spun by a synth. Then, ‘Just an Echo’ sets up a rhythm suitable for dancing. The album ends with the tranquil ‘Bone of Space’, which has a prolonged period of stillness and other soothing noises.
The spoken words complement the voids between the music in each song quite nicely while boggling your mind with beautifully arranged samples and instruments.
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Review by: Paul Woodman