Hiss is on tape!

Apian and Laurent Güdel just released an audio piece on Cassette.

Hiss is a sonic ethnography exploring listening practices in beekeeping. Made in collaboration with the beekeeper Hassan Souaf, the 29-minute piece navigates through the acoustic space of his apiary. Recorded near Inzerki, Morocco — home of the world’s largest migratory apiary — Hiss centres on Hassan’s modest congregation of bee organisms, hived in both traditional and modern beehives. Twenty-two years of practice has provided Hassan with listening abilities to analyse specific sonic cues, allowing him to monitor and predict bee behaviour. Building upon a conversation which discusses these skills, Hiss interweaves recordings of honeybees together with Laurent’s electronic music. The result momentarily unites an array of acoustic communities into a polyphonic interspecies composition.

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Side Note

[ID: The tape is standing in the middle of a greyish background. Its case is transparent and on the front the title is printed in white (Title: Hiss – Apian – Laurent Güdel – Hassan Souaf]. The leaflet is printed on brownish recycled paper, and a picture of a honey super, used by Hassan Souaf, is printed on the cover. On the side, the title (Hiss) is repeated.]

The tape was designed by Dimitri Jeannottat, mastered by Bob Bellerue, and copy edited by Ellen Lapper. A special thanks to Hassan Souaf and Mohamed Ounih.

It is the first edition of 100 copies, and we’re selling them for 20€ + shipping (depending on the destination). The production price was exactly 15.58€ per tape – we got carried away with fancy printing and a dense leaflet, hence the expensive price for a tape. If you want a copy, just send us an email with your address to hi@apian.ch Payment-wise, we only accept PayPal, or you can order via Laurent Güdel’s Bandcamp – which is easier. Otherwise, if you are in London or Bienne (CH) we can arrange a hand-to-hand exchange.