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Watch Billy Corgan Play His Eight-Hour ‘Siddhartha’ Synth Jam

Bill Corgan Siddhartha Jam Stream Eight Hour Live

Billy Corgan is, right now, performing an eight-plus hour ambient interpretation of Herman Hesse’s existential 1922 novel Siddhartha. You can watch it here. So far it seems to be a reading of the book itself, combined with modular synth blips, bloops, and textures. And that’s pretty much what the Smashing Pumpkins boss promised when he announced the unusual Chicago event a week and a half ago:

“On 2//28 I’ll be doing a show at Madame ZuZu’s Teahouse; start time noon, and due to nature of performance it’ll last 8-9 hours. So see https://MadameZuzus.com/ in coming days for details on seating and admissions. As with all our events there is no charge. Performance will be centered around an ambient/musical interpretation of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha; built by modular synthesis, on the fly. Readings of the text to go hand in hand with whatever is created; + the first @Hexistential poster, and event t-shirts too. Hope to see you there.”

Well, really, you’re seeing him there. An hour and 25 minutes in, and the view count is hovering around 550. Seek that rarified air via the enlightened bald being above. Better yet, watch while following Oneohtrix Point Never’s live-tweeting about the performance. To wit: