The next mixtape sees new output 33, aka Billy Bultheel and Alexander Iezzi, putting together a mix of music and musicians that surround them and create their daily musical landscape.
Through their collaborative project 33, Billy Bultheel and Alexander Iezzi further consolidate a partnership which has taken many forms within a visual, artistic spectrum. Their practice envelops performance art, music and installation whilst pinpointing, developing and elaborating the disciplines’ most meaningful and poignant marriages. The artist’s differing backgrounds have informed how their long collaboration works – Bultheel with his conservatory training and Iezzi coming from DIY punk and experimental music scenes.
Their debut album 33-69 (C.A.N.V.A.S., 2022), aments and commemorates the interruption of the simplicities, beauties and charm of mortal life in full Baroque splendour whilst also partaking in the final opportunities for carnal pleasure and orgiastic excesses in the earthly realm.
33-69 was conceived during the first Covid-19 lockdowns and documents the duo’s experiences of pandemic life in Berlin. Recreating that dopamine shot and collaborating towards a sense of community that the pandemic had suddenly folded away. The record is a short but powerful rush of emotional states and bodily desires, translated into cerebral and carnal electronic compositions of EDM, noise and techno.
Bultheel and Iezzi carry a wealth of composition, performance experience, and skill, boasting impressive trajectories that cross each other frequently. This complex and intricate working relationship culminates in the creation of 33-69 as a defiant debut — a dense and finely crafted work that finds unlikely pathways to navigate Baroque, Lieder and exuberant club through humour, dread and exaltation.
As we’ve advanced, the mix they have prepared for us is a compilation of music and musicians that surround them and create their daily musical landscape, part peers, friends and acquaintances, part inspiration, history and admiration. The mix includes music by Judy Garland, Liza Minelli, Bohren Club of Gore, Heith, Lugh, Johannes Ciconia, PC Worship, Rihanna, CEM, Bach and more.
Judy Garland and Liza Minelli ‘Live’ at the London Palladium – Hello Dolly! (We listened to this album over dinner recently, it’s just so great) Heith – A Venus flytrap in the circus lodge (Heith is a musician who we are excited to perform with in the future). Bohren Club of Gore – (Every December, this album comes back into our playlists) Lugh – Hot Mess (Lugh and Olan Monk run C.A.N.V.A.S., the label on which 33-69 was released. They’re both amazing musicians. The support and care they extended into our release was absolutely touching) PC Worship – Lifeless Rain on an Empty Moon (PC Worship is a band of musicians Iezzi knows from NYC. Their take on the band formation still brings something exciting to an old form) Laibach – Contrapunctus I (Laibach is always an inspiration, here covering Bach’s Art of the Fugue) Ciconia – Poy che morir (Ciconia is a 14th-century Flemish composer working in Italy master of algorithmic composition scores. Rihanna – Yeah, I said it (I don’t know her, but I worship her) COH plays Cosey – fuck it (We love this album. The use of voice with electronics is forever inspiring) CEM – Bells Corrupt (CEM is a great DJ and musician. He’s a good friend of the band and will appear on the next record) Buttechno – trt-919 (Pavel Milyakov is a great producer that we’ve been listening to for a long time. He’s currently making a remix for the upcoming 33 remix album, 69 Remixes, planned to release next spring) Mendelssohn – Lieder Ohne Worte Op. 19 alternated with Iezzi’s High School Bands: Issei Segawa – Saaya Irie & Hand of Doom – Letvaria (Motives from this hunting tune from Mendelssohn formed the foundation for the melodic and rhythmic themes on 33-69. (alternated with Iezzi’s High School Bands) Issei Segawa – Saaya Irie Hand of Doom – Letvaria Perila – Cyx (Perila is an amazing musician and friend who will also appear on the upcoming remix album. She always knows how to set the vibe. Erkki Kurenniemi – Antropoidien tanssi (Early electronics from Finland, claimed by some to be one of the first proto-hardcore techno tracks, recorded in 1968) Sunn O))) – It Took the Night to Believe (Great track from our favourite Sunn O))) album, Black One) H. Purcell- Funeral March (This track is on the moodboard for the next album)
