EEXXOO

Billy Bultheel lives and works between Berlin and Brussels. His experimental compositions merge contemporary music with Medieval and Renaissance polyphony, creating site-specific performances where musicians interact dynamically with architecture, sculpture, and custom-built instruments.

His new work, A Short History of Decay, draws inspiration from Romanian existentialist Emil M. Cioran’s 1949 book of the same title, which is a collection of bleak yet poignant aphorisms on topics like fanaticism, religion, music, and the nature of progress. Cioran’s work, written in the grim aftermath of WWII, resonates as a critique of fascism, idolization, and the chaotic potentials of human nature. For Bultheel, these thematics undergird the symbolics that the work, and his oeuvre at large, puts into play. Parallel to this, Bultheel’s title also nods to his unique instrument-building practice, which integrates resonators found in the walls of medieval churches. For this piece, he appropriates historical structures that have regulated and modified reverb, resonance and decay. Gaia Heichal assists in the instrument research and construction for A Short History of Decay.

A Short History of Decay will be performed by an ensemble of 5 musicians, combining strings, piano, flute, voice, and electronic elements. Collaborators include Caleb Salgado on bass and Adam Sinclaire on flute, soprano Hannah Endrulat and cellist Chloe Lula. Andrea D’Arsie supports Bultheel with electronics. Bultheel continues his collaboration with Andrea Belosi (TOR Studio) as scenographer.

This performance is part of EEXXOO, a program that reimagines musical experience beyond the confines of traditional concert halls, blending sound, performance, and architecture. EEXXOO challenges conventional listening and concert experiences. For A Short History of Decay the audience is invited to engage differently with the theatre space.

billybultheel.pro

Former works of Billy Bultheel include The Thief’s Journal at Atonal Berlin (2023), Workers in Song at WIELS, Brussels (2023), and Mt. Analogue at the Pinault Collection in Paris (2023). Bultheel’s ongoing explorations have taken his music to diverse platforms, collaborating with artists like Anne Imhof, with whom he composed for Faust (2017) and Sex (2019), as well as creating music for choreographers and theatre productions across Europe. A compilation of pieces created between 2016 and 2023 was released on PAN records under the album title Two Cycles  in 2024.

billybultheel.bandcamp.com/album/two-cycles

In 2020, Bultheel co-founded the modular band 33 with Alexander Iezzi, releasing their debut album 33-69 in 2021 and continuing to tour and develop new material. Bultheel’s background in composition and performance spans studies at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague and the Institute for Applied Theatre Science in Gießen, Germany, grounding his work in a unique blend of auditory and spatial innovation.

By and with:
Billy Bultheelinstagram.com/billyjohnbultheel
Andrea D’Arsie instagram.com/andreadarsie
Adam Sinclaire instagram.com/adamsinclaire
Caleb Salgado instagram.com/perfect_deleted_futures
Chloe Lula instagram.com/chloe.lula
Hannah Endrulat instagram.com/hannahendrulat
Gaia Heichal instagram.com/birthed__

Light Design: Periklis Lazarou (Fluxgeist) instagram.com/fluxgeistportal

TOR Studio instagram.com/tor_tor_tor_studio instagram.com/andrea.belosi instagram.com/finleystewart_ https://torstudio.net

Co-Production: Alice Agency instagram.com/sara.sassanelli instagram.com/jareddavisz

Supported by Flandres State of the Arts

Suppored by Flandres State of the Arts