About the live show

POPULAR PROGRAMS
A pioneer of live lofi hip-hop performance, Cruel Buddhist serves peaceful musical meditations with his aesthetic instrumental beats balancing elegance and grit. Drawing from R&B, 70’s funk, and vaporwave, he uses improvisation and a loop station to combine synthesizers, samplers, and nature sounds to interpret his introspective lofi hip-hop productions in a hypnotizing, unique-to-the-crowd live performance. Instead of the DJ style performances common for electronic music, Cruel Buddhist shows are played 100% live using innovative techniques that place him at the cutting edge of modern music performance—allowing on-the-fly tailoring to the energy of the room and crowd. Beyond the stage, his background and interest in STEM allows him to deliver workshops on developing and cultivating students’ DIY artmaking; audiences can create their own samples, learn about programming, and contribute to the performance.

With his latest EP 'Sonder' distributed by 88 Rising, his unique focus sees him opening shows for chill beatmaker legends like MNDSGN, Budamunk, and Nightmares on Wax. Tim Pritchard of ‘Discovery’ Magazine says “Cruel Buddhist’s sound lands somewhere between (Brian) Eno’s ambient tinkles and the experimental, instrumental trip-hop of Flying Lotus, Quantic, and Bonobo.” Focused on aesthetic, his HiMA Modern Art Museum feature and Shanghai Fashion Week performances have lead to collaborations with brands like Chanel, Puma, Converse, Rémy Martin; his music is featured onboard Lufthansa and Cathay Pacific airlines.
J Dilla, Wabisabi, and John Cage:
​the avant garde ideas behind lofi hip-hop and sampling
30-45 minutes

​A short presentation on three philosophical principals of music and the way they are incorporated into modern sample based creation.          
Making music from thin air: creative sampling workshop for ambient and beats music
45 minutes - 3 hours

A ​short presentation on modern music philosophy, an environmental sample collecting session, a workshop to make music from those samples, and then a presentation session to share workshop attendees' creations together. 

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Cruel Buddhist’s sound lands somewhere
between (Brian) Eno’s ambient tinkles and the experimental, instrumental trip-hop of Flying Lotus, Quantic, and Bonobo.

Tim Pritchard
Discovery Magazine

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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One of the more prolific producers based in China right now, Cruel Buddhist has released a flurry of excellent records over the past few years.

That's Shanghai

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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... an exploration in the small spaces that surround us and how to interpret these ideas with both natural and man-made electronic sounds.

Marvin Evangelista
Best Albums of 2022

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Bestselling Author of Permanent Midnight and I, Fatty

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