MUSIC / On music

Dig those crazy Gregorian chants? The Next Big Thing in the secular consumption of religious music is Buddhist chanting. And you can grab a taste after work on Friday at the London Tibetan Buddhist Centre.

The Bardo State Orchestra (below) consists of three men and a pun. Bardo is the in-between state that the mind (or soul, if you must) occupies after death and before rebirth. 'Buddhism isn't so much a religion as an investigation of the mind and why we suffer, and how to break the chain of suffering,' says Jim Dvorak, the trumpeter. 'Chanting is just one of the methods we use.' His partners Marcio Mattos, a Brazilian bassist, and Ken Hyder, a Scottish vocalist, are all jazz improvisers, and all made contact with Buddhism on trips out East. 'We'll be improvising around the themes of the chants,' he continues. 'I'll be playing them on my trumpet, and the others will be singing the notes, but not the words, since it's sacred music, not really meant for public performance. At 9.30pm, a film called Bardo will be screened, also about the transitional states of the soul. Marcio's background is in Zen, the Japanese form. Ken has studied a kind of shamanism from Mongolia called Bon, which is one of the oldest forms of Buddhism. He's a pretty good throat singer. It'll sound more ethnic than jazz. The main thing is it will be good music.' If you are living a soulless existence, this could herald a change at last.

Friday 1 Jul, 8pm-10.30pm at RIGPA, the London Tibetan Buddhist Centre, 330 Caledonian Rd, N1. For info call Jim on 071-281 1153

(Photograph omitted)