Category: Brion Gysin

Dreamachine gathers Brion Gysin’s cult recordings in a blend of ambient, spoken word, avant-garde, minimalism, and afrobeat, mimicking the art device by translating its effects into an audio experience. Produced by French artist Ramuntcho Matta in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the 32-minute track summons Gysin’s artistic ethos to a haunting perfection, building on an enveloping trance-like cadence to achieve an effect that evokes the alpha wave state induced by the original invention.

Brion Gysin rubbed elbows with William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. The new version of his 1983 album Junk is something of an archeological expedition: it mixes alternates and an instrumental alongside an acoustic demo and a handful of tracks released in Gysin’s lifetime to create a record that never was. It’s an interesting, if short listen that mixes the ideas flowing out of New York with Gysin’s poetry and French singers.