33 (Billy Bultheel & Alexander Iezzi)
In collaboration with and performed by Dylan Kerr, Ivan Cheng, Steve Katona, NAKED (UK), Patrick Belaga
Additional live acts by NAKED & Patrick Belaga
DJ set by Baptist Goth
Stage designed with Andrea Belosi
Commissioned by Creamcake

“Maybe. Who cares?” These are the wise words of H2G2’s Magrathean coastline designer of luxury planets, called Slartibartfast, when confronted with the disappointing answer to the meaning of existence, calculated by the second greatest computer, called Deep Thought. Later, at Milliway’s—Restaurant at the End of the Universe, a compere called Max Quordlepleen introduces Armageddon at the dinner theater with a “wonderful sense of doom and futility.”

At Creamcake’s “The Ultimate Question” performance evening, the duo called 33 responds to the contemporary crisis of living on Earth with a similarly nihilistic spectacle. Happening at Trauma Bar und Kino—as part of 3hd 2022: “Life, the Universe, and Everything”—on October 27, the interdisciplinary project’s Billy Bultheel and Alexander Iezzi invite a company of similarly sonically-inclined sensualists for its own night of doomsday debauchery.

Contributors Dylan Kerr, Ivan Cheng, Steve Katona, NAKED, and Patrick Belaga all take part in 33’s first show to support the launch of debut release, 33-69, in a Baroque-informed orgy to accompany their existential opus of ​​industrial noise, metal, and gothic techno, with esthetic flourishes of classical composition. Commissioned and premiered by Creamcake, the “33 Plugged” concert will take place in a modular installation designed with Andrea Belosi, with self-built instruments, expanding on the album’s idea of bringing together a chaotic collection of elements, artists, and styles to a spatial, architectural, and multidimensional live presentation.

Bultheel and Iezzi are two composers, producers, and instrument-makers, working at a nexus of art, pop and experimental composition. The 33 project further consolidates their long-time partnership, which has taken many forms within a visual, artistic spectrum, and culminating in their explosive nine-track sound journey, released via C.A.N.V.A.S. and dropping with this seven-strong live spectacle—along with solo sets by NAKED and Patrick Belaga. The unusual format and focus on coming together in a post-pandemic world, aims to broaden the audience’s expectations and sensory experiences of a concert, achieving a synergy with musical production, while spurning the draw of despondency and embracing the infinite void in communion.

Funded by NEUSTART KULTUR, Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Initiative Musik