Billy Bultheel - Two Cycles

PAN

£27.90

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: PAN138LP
Barcode: 756029613096
Release Date: 19 Jul 2024
Genre: Experimental/Electronic

The double album cover, one for each side and cycle on the record, features a collage created by the Welsh video artist James Richards that merges medieval iconography with snippets of queer memorabilia.

Billy Bultheel's debut solo album is an ambitious distillation of the composer’s sprawling litany of influences and his unique approach to site-specific composition. A compilation of pieces created between 2016 and 2023, the album is a forceful testament to Bultheel's expansive performance practice and collaborations with cutting-edge visual artists like Anne Imhof and James Richards.

Drawing inspiration from industrial music and metal as well as medieval and baroque polyphony, Bultheel devised a way to present this collection of works side-by-side. The record is split into two distinct cycles: the Snow Cycle, which collects Bultheel's electro-acoustic and compositional work, and the Game Cycle, which assembles his electronic productions. These two suites have unmistakable symmetry; Bultheel's traditional compositions are bolstered by his understanding of electronic production, while his electronic pieces are moulded by his knowledge of classical and traditional music. "Two Cycles" is an album that exhibits duality, embodying the dichotomy of Bultheel's roles as both an ensemble composer and an electronic producer.

TRACKLIST:
Side A
1. The Arcades Project
2. Mt. Analogue
3. Empire of the Senseless
4. The Man without Content
5. The Snows of Venice
6. Serpent Song
7. Foot Soldiers of the Fold

Side B
8. Game Theory
9. Decreation
10. 5SSP
11. The Thief's Journal
12. 9ssp
13. Gigue