Phurpa

My first acquaintance with Phurpa was about three years ago, when Cyclic Law released this project’s self-called album. I did a review for it, which had been published on November 16^th 2014. But this Russian act is active for quite some time. Actually, founding member Alexei Tegin started this outfit more than two decades ago, being inspired by the Bon cult, a tantric philosophy closely related, yet somewhat different (and older) than traditional Tibetan Buddhism as we, ignorant western people, know it.

Almost twenty years ago, some artists / musicians from Russia, sharing a common interest in traditional and ritual Music, decided to create stuff that stood miles away from electronic Music. Alexey Tegin studied ancient musical cultures from ancient Egypt, Iran and Tibet, and since he was interested in the Buddhist culture in general, and the BON-tradition more specifically, he named this project after one of the five tutelary deities of the Father Tantra, Phurpa.