Flowers. Pt. I - EP by Killer Bee

The first installment of my ‘Flowers’ series, I wanted to use it as a platform to score living spaces. Spaces that may not be initially thought of writing music to. Created in 7 days, I made this tape during an art fellowship for Colby College's Lunder Institute for American Art in the summer of 2021 and was intended to score the ground floor of the Greene Block building I was working out of. After speaking with another brilliant artist fellow, Riley Watts, about how he maps out spaces through dance, I wanted to see if I could map out a space with music (time). In the same way a composer would score a film, I wanted to bring a visual element to my music and envision what the ground floor of the building would sound like once it opened officially and there were students on campus. I imagined it being used as a place of respite for students in between programming, a place to study or relax with friends. 

Scoring these brief in between moments of life is very important to my work and allows me to form connections through memory. I also wanted to deconstruct the meaning of background music and the hyper-curated way we consume music today. Placing the power of consumption and curation back into the hands of the artist and curate an experience that you can’t skip or pause out of since the tape was intended to be installed on the ground floor shuffling randomly/endlessly on loop so no two listening experiences would be the same and filling an otherwise silent space. If you wanted to listen to the album, you had to be physically present. Since the piece is formless, I invite the listener who downloads the tape to rearrange the tracklist to their liking, choosing how it flows together which is why I left the metadata track information as '_ of 7'. Since I can't make Spotify or traditional DSPs bend to my vision of having the tape shuffle randomly upon refresh, the tracklist that I submitted is 'my' version. And funny enough it actually wasn't intended to be ordered that way, I just chose names of flowers that meant something to me and one by one each piece fell into place naturally through alphabetical order. Everything happens for a reason.

Ultimately I tried to answer the question: Can I make something engaging enough to break a listener out of a study session or conversation? I'm not sure if I succeeded but another reason why I wanted to challenge myself with this project was because this was an exercise of letting go for me. I made this album in a week, a feat that I’ve always been intimidated by because of my relentless pursuit of perfection. I wanted to challenge myself and make something that I would be proud of in a short period of time, using fragments and samples to capture fleeting bursts of creativity, reflecting the series’ name and the ephemeral nature of flowers. Finally, huge shouts to Gabriel, Beth, Teresa, Daisy, Riley, Veronica, and Adriane for all the support and mentorship throughout my fellowship and help with the installation. Thanks to anyone listening and to my family for their support. I hope you like it because it's all for u.

<3 Bee

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Liner Notes:

bluebonnet
The state flower of Texas where DJ Screw (R.I.P.) is from

hibiscus
The state flower of Puerto Rico in honor of NYC graffiti artist Zexor (R.I.P.)

iris
The national flower of Palestine

lily
The flower left in the tomb of the Virgin Mary upon her assumption

pinecone
The state flower of Maine. I acknowledge that this album was made on the traditional territory and land that the Wabanaki and other indigenous people have called home. I will strive to learn from my own past ignorance to help educate those around me by uplifting indigenous people of all backgrounds. 

sunflower
My favorite flower, represents peace and also the state flower of Kansas where Clark Kent/Superman grew up lmao.

violet
The state flower of New Jersey where I’m from.