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Karman Line Collective - the group fka BE - release a new album on 20th May 2025. To Be arrives on the UK’s National Bee Day and will be quickly followed by a pair of instore gigs at Rough Trade shops in Liverpool (22nd May) and London East (23rd May).

To Be is the first album release from Karman Line Collective. Recorded by artist Wolfgang Buttress with Kevin Bales and Tony Foster (Spiritualized, Julian Cope) and Justin Goodyear, To Be is a phenomenal, immersive new soundscape for Buttress’ latest art installation - BEES: A Story of Survival - a multi-sensory experience at World Museum, Liverpool. This exhibition highlights the essential role these ingenious pollinators play within the planet’s ecosystems, as well as the existential threat faced by both bees and humanity alike due to our mistreatment of the planet.

Eight years ago, along with thousands of bees, Wolfgang Buttress worked with Bales and Foster as BE to soundtrack his multi award-winning art installation The Hive in Kew Gardens, London. The album ONEcollected that soundscape and was released on Caught by the River’s Rivertones label to much critical acclaim and featured in multiple best album of the year lists, including those of Rough Trade, The Quietus and The Guardian.

The soundscape for BEES: A Story of Survival builds on and evolves the group’s previous work on The Hive and develops it as one of the exhibition’s main narrative devices. Buttress has likened moving through the exhibition to following the contours of a song: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, middle eight, drop, chorus, chorus - much like how the eight installations in the piece meld into and inform each other. The music - along with light, sound, projection and scent - take the visitor on an emotional and sensorial journey into the secret world of bees.

Created over three years of writing and recording, To Be beautifully combines previously unheard recordings of bee communications with deeply enveloping meditative music. These unique bee communication sounds are used as raw musical stems within the composition; some are processed through guitar pedals to augment the music creating an entirely new library of sounds. Throughout the record, the listener will hear bees communicating in various ways, from the vibrations produced by their famous ‘waggle dance,’ to the sounds melittologists refer to as bees’ tooting, quacking and purring.

Over the course of the record, Karman Line Collective take the listener on a reflective journey, making connections to the changing seasons of life and our increasingly fragile relationship with nature. The music flows with it’s own mysterious beauty offering a sense of empathy and connection where the sounds of bee and human are harmoniously integrated..

To Be was recorded, mixed and produced by Karman Line Collective (Kev Bales, Wolfgang Buttress, Tony Foster, Justin Goodyear) with help from Camille Christel (words, vocals), Deirdre Bencsik (cello), Robert Howard (guitar), David Harris (trumpet) and Ian Downing (saw).

TRACK LISTING

1. Melittology
2. Portal
3. Meadow
4. Be
5. Swarm
6. Vanishing
7. Memory
8. Symphony