About
About The Smiling Buddhas
The Smiling Buddhas compose acoustic travelogues with passion and visions for the open-minded!
Their music floats easily between ambient, illbient and morphed techno structures. They create acoustic travelogues from their extensive journeys around the globe to create audible spaces for lucid daydreams.
After the spiritual insight into the hidden kingdom of Lo in Mustang, Nepal ("Lo", base 2008) the Buddhas traveled and hiked through the Atacama desert in Chile and Peru ("Atacama", base 2012). "The Alps" (base 2013) is a look back at the days of their childhood and youth in the Austrian Alps . "Latium" (base 2014) is a wonderful acoustic road movie that tells whimsical stories from the beautiful region around Rome Latium. In 2015, the Buddhas performed and partied all night long in cities like Amsterdam, Rome or Paris ("All-Nighter" (base) and inviting you to cruise with them through Hong Kong early in the morning ("Homekong" (base). In 2016, they celebrated the miracles of "Alpine Rose" (Alpine Rec.) aka Almrausch.
In 2017, The Smiling Buddhas teamed up with the great singer Philomena from Vienna and the deep voice of Le Renard, who commutes between the South of France and Linz, for "Cote" (base). "Upwelling" was released on several trance music compilations and hit the floor hard on several raves worldwide! At the end of 2020, TSB published the acoustic travel report "Acoustic Postcards" (base). In December 2021 the Buddhas invited to an acoustic journey to places "Far Off" (base). In August 2022 and 2024 they composed two beatless ambient albums about monofunctional spaces in urban & suburban areas titeled "Non-Places" & „Non Places #2“ (base). In 2023, the Buddhas released their first album „Never Ever Forever“ (base), which had nothing to do with traveling or non-places. With the album “Enter New Spheres” (base, 2025), the Buddhas enter completely new spaces wherever they go. In the end, they ask themselves: If only God were a DJ!
Band: "Fa-di" Dorninger (synths, samples, electronics) and John Fitzpatrick (Sound, Electronics) - who has taken a break from the band since 2022 - are aural storytellers. They love to travel open-minded and "when we get hit hard by our demon wanderlust we start telling epic stories not using words".
Live: "Fa-Di" Dorninger creates huge sonic sculptures with sounds from their travels and pump them up with pounding techno beats to make you dance.
Booking Request: The Smiling Buddhas can be contacted and booked via base[records]
The Smiling Buddhas live at "Circuit Control - Out of Control 2016" in Dresden, Germany October 15th at Tafel Dresden. More info: Circuit Control.