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BE’s ‘ONE’ in the Guardian’s Best Albums of 2016 list + Wolfgang Buttress’ The Hive installation set to open at Kew Gardens in a few weeks

June 13, 2016

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BE

‘ONE’ featured in The Guardian’s ‘Best Albums of 2016 – So Far’ 

‘The Hive’ sculptural installation opens at Kew Gardens
on 18th June

New album ONE is out now on Rivertones

Summer performances include Glastonbury, End of the Road

Listen here.

The Guardian has named Be‘s ambient drone album ONE, as one of their Best Albums of 2016 – So Far, describing it as, “a transcendental drone symphony between man and bee that is surely one of the year’s most beguiling offerings.” Read the feature here.

The soundscape was developed as part of artist Wolfgang Buttress’ multi-award-winning installation, ‘The Hive’, which is currently being installed at Kew Gardens, and will be open to the public on 18th June. Full information is below.

Following their magnificent, immersive performance at Sonos Studio in London recently, BE have added Glastonbury Festival to their festival appearances this summer.  BE will perform music from their recently released debut album ONE, which is out now on Caught By The River’s Rivertones label and is available here.

BE play:

22 – 26 June – Glastonbury Festival, Glade Stage
24 July – Blue Dot festival, Jodrell Bank
6 August – Caught by the River Thames, Fulham Palace
September 4 – End of the Road, Salisbury

The multi-award winning beehive installation, The Hive, features thousands of lights and soundscape linked by sensors to a living beehive. Conceived as the centrepiece of the UK Pavilion at the 2015 Milan Expo and designed in collaboration with BDP and Simmonds Studio, The Hive is the first ever British Pavilion to be reused and brought back home, and will be unveiled within the stunning landscape of Kew Gardens on 18 June 2016.

Towering 17 metres high and twisting out of the ground in a shape suggestive of a swarm of bees this magnificent, ever changing space will stand as a visual symbol of the pollinators’ role in feeding humanity and the challenges facing bees today. Illuminating talks, tours, activities and films will fill the Gardens, showing visitors how they can make a difference.

Visitors will be drawn into The Hive via a lush and vibrant wild flower meadow as though they are bees returning to the hive. Once inside, thousands of flickering LED lights will bring this 40 tonne lattice structure to life, while an orchestral arrangement sets the mood. After discovering that bees hum in the key of C, a beautiful, complementary symphony of vocals and cello was composed and recorded (and released as an album), to create a calming, meditative soundscape within The Hive, inspired by the deep visceral hum of bees. Triggered by real-time activity within a living beehive located nearby in the Gardens, the sound and light intensity within the space will change as the energy levels in the real hive fluctuate, giving visitors an experiential insight into the life of a bee colony. As dusk falls, the hypnotic pulse of the delicately glowing lights will make the planned series of ‘Hive Lates’ a must-see during September.

Richard Deverell, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says:

We are truly delighted to welcome The Hive to Kew, both for its incredible beauty and for the resonance it has with our work – I can think of no better home for this remarkable marriage of architecture and science.

The Hive creates a powerful, immersive space for us to explore the urgent issues we face in relation to pollinators, their intimate relationships with plants and their vital role in helping us feed a rapidly growing population.”

Wolfgang Buttress, artist and designer of The Hive says:

“It’s fantastic to watch The Hive coming back to life at Kew. The Gardens offer the perfect environment to host this multi-sensory experience that integrates art, science and landscape architecture.”

Follow updates on The Hive at Kew on the official Twitter page @kewgardens #KewHive

Praise for BE’s ONE

A transcendental drone symphony between man and bee that is surely one of the year’s most beguiling offerings.” The Guardian

“A meditative mind-meld of man and insect” Uncut

“Superior waggle dance music” Mojo 4*

A genuinely immersive experience” 4* The Guardian
(live review from Nottingham Arts Theatre)

“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” Huck (live review from Sonos Studio, London)

This music is immensely beautiful, almost transcendent at times. It’s easy to get lost in, as the musicians managed to tap into the hypnotic quality of the drone.” Ransom Note (live review from Sonos Studio, London)

BE•ONE is out now. It’s available from all good record shops or directly from Caught by the River: https://caughtbytheriver.greedbag.com/buy/one-388/

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