Friday Madness: Bee Music
Ah, the joy of sampling… T. B. Folmann, part of the Tonehammer consortium, creates music entirely from sampled bee sounds that he manipulates electronically. Clearly, in love with the honey-producing species, Folmann even built his own “Bee Garden” sanctuary in his back yard, which he uses to clandestinely record a bee’s every move, stripping away the small remnants of dignity they have left. (Thankfully, Folmann did not film his extensive bee plushy collection for the video you are about to witness. —Ed.)
Vlearly inspired by VH1’s Behind The Music and MTV’s POP Up Video, Tonehammer has created a video about his misadventures for your viewing pleasure…
Here’s what Folmann had to say in his own words:
“Tonehammer is not just about fancy sampling, but we also find pleasure in cross-pollinating new elements and creating fresh audio honey. This time around we wanted to explore the concept of bees. The bee produces about 200-230 wing flaps per second, which is enough to generate a nice, rich sounding buzz. We recorded a bunch of bee sounds and manipulated them through a variety of tools (including timefreezers, delays, filters, glitch modules etc). We then decided to add some more human elements to it (vocals, guitars, grooves etc) and wrapped it up by adding full symphony orchestra and choirs on it during the end.
Einstein once mentioned that the human race would have four years to live on earth if they bees were to disappear or die. While these little creatures can seem insignificant – they do make the world go around and they have a keystone role in the ecosystem. So while the world is concerned with celebrity culture and facebook updates – we decided to send our respect to all the bees in the world and see how far we could take them into the realm of music. Besides the bee sounds – the majority of samples are coming from our own tonehammer sample catalog including: Forgotten Voices: Cait, Shake, Mini and Requiem Light.”
More information on Tonehammer.
