Saturday 4 March 2023, 8pm
London debut for 33, a new project by the Berlin-residing performance duo Billy Bultheel and Alexander Iezzi, as part of a double act C.A.N.V.A.S. UK tour with co-founder Olan Monk’s return to cafe OTO with Michael Speers on drums. Special guest Lolina joining as DJ.
Tour supported by Culture Ireland and Musicboard Berlin
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 most meaningful and poignant marriages of the disciplines. Their differing backgrounds have informed the way that their long collaboration works – Bultheel with his conservatory training, and Iezzi coming from DIY punk and experimental music scenes.
Olan Monk is a musician, performer and writer from Connemara, Ireland. They co-founded C.A.N.V.A.S. with Lugh O’Neill as an events series and record label, established in 2018 to give collective agency to an increasingly dispersed community of artists.
Their practice involves experimental and popular songwriting, performing as a solo act and in collaboration with other musicians, including recordings and performances with Actress, Ashley Paul, Elvin Brandhi, James K, Maria Somerville and Michael Speers. Past releases include Love/Dead (2020) and Auto Life (2021) on C.A.N.V.A.S. and Dubplate 08 (2022) on AD 93.
Most recently, Iezzi has been putting stray plush animals in uncomfortable situations, often digitally manipulating these grotesque images and videos to enter the realm of the surreal (or 90s rave flyer). Sonically, the artist has repurposed failed bids to the Eurovision Song Contest: he released the album EUROVISION 2020 last May, when the international TV spectacle was supposed to take place in Rotterdam before its ultimate cancelation. In premiering the track »Netherlands – Take a Wise Decision,« AQNB described its looped strings and cut-up vocals as “relentless in their forward momentum, resurrecting the feverish anti-pop of our current and crumbling reality.” Over the last few years Iezzi has performed or exhibited at MoMA
(New York), the Kunstinstituut Melly (Rotterdam), Galerija Močvara (Zagreb), KW (Berlin), Halle Für Kunst Steiermark (Graz) and Galleri Syster (Luleå, Sweden) but crucially, outside of institutions as well, allowing free-range conditions for their work to wander. Iezzi also produces Oh Look a Shining Emotion, a monthly radio show on Barcelona- based TeslaFM, presenting an hour of high-contrast, textural electronic music. The artist hails from Arizona, USA, and is nowadays based in Berlin.
Billy Bultheel is a composer and performance-maker. His music combines heavy electronics with medieval and baroque polyphony. As a performance maker he subverts the traditional forms of musical concerts into choreographed performances. Amongst his latest works are ‘Unter’, a piece for percussion, flute and serpent horn, performed as part of Disappearing Berlin in 2021, ‘Athens, Songs I-IV’ at the Athens Biennial 2021 and ‘The Minutes of Olomouc’ (PAF, CZ 2021). Bultheel has been a close collaborator of the performance artist Anne Imhof and composed music for Imhof ’s exhibition-as-opera Angst (2016), Faust (2017) and Sex (2019). Faust won the Golden Lion for its participation at the Venice Biennial in 2017. The music for Faust and Sex has been released on the Berlin-based label PAN. His track ‘The Sky Bent’ was released on the ‘Apocope’ compilation by C.A.N.V.A.S. Bultheel has a BA in Electronic Music and Composition from the Royal Conservatory of The Netherlands with a Minor in Medieval Polyphony, and an MA in Choreography and Performance at the Justus-Liebig University, Germany.
Michael Speers (b. 1992) is a musician from Northern Ireland.
Working with natural & synthetic sound material—using drums, computer, microphones, feedback—in composition, performance and installation.
Collaborating with Paul Abbott as yPLO—using real & imaginary drums. With Luciano Maggiore, making music contemplating the kernel of black metal.
Other collaborators include John Wall, Louise Le Du, Olan Monk, Niklas Adam, Lee Fraser and Seijiro Murayama.
Recordings published by Anòmia, Party Perfect!, Krim Kram, Takuroku, C.A.N.V.A.S., Wasted Capital Since 2013 and Feedback Moves.
Lolina is an electronic and digital musician, also known for her past projects as Inga Copeland. She was a member of the band Hype Williams between 2009 and 2013. Lolina’s releases and live performances evolved through experiments with recording and playback equipment. The improvisational cut up style is exemplified on her releases “Who is experimental music?” (2019) and “Fast Fashion” (Deathbomb Arc, 2021). For "Fast Fashion" title track, Lolina used fashion show soundtracks to re-sample and rearrange into a new composition. She continues with this experiment in her recent mixes and DJ sets, choosing several runway collections from one fashion brand each time.
