I went to an orchestra made up of 40,000 honeybees and it was amazing
- Text by Shelley Jones
The story goes that artist and musician Wolfgang Buttress was chilling at his mate’s place – near a sizeable beehive – when he was overcome by the musicality of their collective hum. Apparently nature’s favourite little workers had struck the key of C and their low elemental vibrations really moved open-minded Wolfgang.
He had already started a love affair with the honeybee in his 2015 UK pavilion design for the World Fair – a giant metal lattice structure called The Hive. But now Wolfgang set about putting a band together that could write music with and then improvise live to the sound of the humble bumble.
The resulting album BE•ONE – four tracks of haunting soundscapes that finally bring man and bee onto the same page – features field recordings of hives, earthly string sections and otherworldly vocals with lyrics like, ‘I am your Queen.’
The ensemble played live recently in Shoreditch’s Sonos Studios – with the bees livestreamed in from a hive in Kent (ah technology you tricksy minx!) – and the effect was actually incredible.
The musicians were positioned behind a net screen and projections – of busy bees, hives, honeycomb and more cosmic interpretations of those three things – bathed everyone in a warm yellow glow. First there was a spoken-word recording that articulated some of the honeybee’s musicality – from ‘toots and cracks and purrs’ to the ‘Waggle Dance’ (some of it even sounded like birdsong!). And then the music rose up and seemed to come straight from the core of the earth itself. Loud, hypnotic, and constant, it hits you right in the belly – an amazing experiment that aims to reconnect us with our very-important-for-life friends.
Buttress told the Guardian recently: “It’s about listening rather than dictating. Trying to tune in and find harmony, where you’re working with something rather than against it. Humans like to think that they’re always in control but we should be learning to let go sometimes. It can be hard to do that but also quite liberating.”
Buttress and crew are playing BE•ONE at a select number of festivals over the summer. Check into the Caught By The River website for more info.
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