The patterning on butterfly wings is constructed of tiny blade-like scales (lamellar), with color structured into complex messaging and variation. That’s precisely the sonic feeling of Amalgamate, the latest from Shanghai-based artist 33EMYBW. We got to talk to 33 about alienation, metamorphosis, and the meaning of some of those lyrics.
Photos by Di Wei
Aamalgamte may be about alienation, but the music itself feels far from cold. Yes, everything is precise, tuned — but this is a celebratory explosion of variety and possibility. It’s a map to how IDM and electronic music and the computer can metamorphize. And if algorithms and social media are squeezing us into a monoculture, Amalgamate is a manifesto for bursting out of the cocoon. Just like Lepidoptera, those different constructions offer endless variety and life. The machine isn’t the message here; there’s a deeper spirit as the topic.
So let’s listen to 33 on philosophy, and hatching life from the Mother of All Things.
The album is out now on SVBKVLT, a favorite imprint around here.
PK: First, about that creature in the opening. It’s a familiar image, the butterfly transformation; then you also have the kind of alchemy of the sound world. Is it mainly about the sonic transformations, or is there more to that narrative? I know you’ve talked about arthropods before in your work.
33: My previous three albums trace a continuous thread of “spirit and insect”: Golem (2018) explores technological creations; Arthropods (2019) unfolds a jigsaw of souls across the arthropod continent; and Holes of Sinian (2023) depicts ancient biota lingering in nonlinear time. This lineage gradually built the sonic system and worldview of “Arthropod Dance.”
Once this system was built, I reflected on its bond with the present age. I questioned my real connection with electronic music, and specifically, what this connection means for me situated in China. These questions unlocked a new imaginative space, within which I take distillation and amalgamation as my model.
The butterfly stands as a potent symbol of the transformation between consciousness and matter, the metamorphosis of spirit and flesh. In Miao mythology, it is also the Mother of All Things, embodying the hatching and emergence of life.
Like all living things, sound can awaken its “spirit” and “Qi” through transformation. This practice does not seek to transcend the mortal world, escape the body, or attain the Philosopher’s Stone. Instead, it is a return to the flesh — to perceive the beauty and emotion within subtle, perpetual flow. As the final line from Golden Light reads: “Golden light descends upon the mortal earth.”
Cover artwork by Jingxin Wang.
“The butterfly stands as a potent symbol of the transformation between consciousness and matter, the metamorphosis of spirit and flesh. In Miao mythology, it is also the Mother of All Things.”
It’s such a rich world, especially across the percussion, and it feels like the sound really propels the rhythms. What’s your process like; are these found sounds? Synthesized from scratch? What sort of evolution are they going through?
I like to build rhythms by mixing non-percussive samples with Ableton’s built-in classic drum kits. On this EP, I experimented with synth tones I hadn’t used before. And most of the vocal samples come from my field recordings made in the Miao regions of Guizhou between 2024 and 2025. This area is also home to Guizhou’s concentrated photovoltaic sites and FAST, the 500-metre radio telescope.
In Deleuze’s “smooth space” (smooth space as the Body without Organs, a space of intensities and becomings), the decentralization of electronic music reveals the essence of sound: “it strips away the ‘organs’ of music (melody, harmony, rhythmic structure), transforming them into a plane of intensities, speeds, and molecular flows” (Christoph Cox).
My Taiji teacher often instructs us not to focus force on any particular point, not to exert muscular power, but to imagine ourselves as a mass of flowing cells. However, this is not achieved merely through mental visualization. Therefore, I must change my habitual way of recruiting muscle groups and instead become aware of my acupoints, meridians, and qi. I treat “qi” as my new organ — one that liberates my body while simultaneously reshaping my way of moving.
From this point, I envision the growth of new organs: both a merging and refinement of (electronic music) genre and culture, and an activation and rebirth of the senses.
Above: 500-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) radio telescope and surrounding Guizhou Province, as imaged by the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.
Is there any hardware you’re working with?
I feel like hardware distracts me, both during creation and live performances. I prefer the ultimate simplicity of working with just one laptop.
I’m biased in a way in that the first time I saw your work, it had this visual accompaniment. I wonder: how do images impact your work?
When I finished the first track on this EP, I Cut, I already had a rough idea of the cover art in my head — including the colors and certain details. After that, I shaped the corresponding sound and atmosphere following that visual image. You could say the general tonal direction and aesthetic were set from the start. This is different from my previous albums. Before, I would first build a narrative thread, devise characters and scenes, or settle on an abstract concept.
There’s a lot of complexity and sophistication to the rhythm.
I compose these details out. I really enjoy shaping and controlling them.
On that note, there is some form and structure there. Do these form like sentences for you, or how do you assemble them?
My approach is a kind of spatial shifting. For me, the structure is more like moving between spaces and scenarios, or jumping from one dream into another. It’s very intuitive to me. I just need to stay immersed and keep that sense of freshness while composing.
I see the hints of a narrative here — golden elixers and bugs. It has the feeling of lightning bugs (fireflies/glowworms) on some alien planet. Or you’re hinting at bioluminescence. How should we think about the organic versus the artificial on this way? (Natural bioluminescence can seem more alien or futuristic than any technology, arguably!)
I love your interpretation!
Much like the creature on the cover made by WJX, it is an alterego of mine. It symbolises alienation brought on by technology (the artificial), and carries the uncertainty within processes of transformation and flux (the organic).
It symbolises alienation brought on by technology (the artificial), and carries the uncertainty within processes of transformation and flux (the organic).
Is there anything else we should know about the text? I especially enjoy the vocals on “The Golden Elixer” and “Photovoltaic”; I don’t know if that’s you.
Yeah, this is the first time I’ve sung in Chinese on one of my releases.
Lyric:
声声有神 节节复复
四肢五脏 七魄三魂
足功流变 洞生千虫
乐悲空空 太空不空
生似虫虫 梦蝶化人
天地虫虫 智舞永动
金光在人间
shēng shēng yǒu shén jié jié fù fù
sì zhī wǔ zàng qī pò sān hún
zú gōng liú biàn dòng shēng qiān chóng
lè bēi kōng kōng tài kōng bù kōng
shēng sǐ chóng chóng mèng dié huà rén
tiān dì chóng chóng zhì wǔ yǒng dòng
jīn guāng zài rén jiān
Every sound bears spirit; every pattern repeats and multiplies.
Four limbs and five organs,three souls and seven spirits—form the complete vessel of life.
Footworks flux and transform; countless insects are born and inhabit the porous;
Joy and sorrow dissolve into emptiness; yet the universe is never empty.
Life and death belong swarm with arthropods; butterfly dreams man into existence.
Heaven and earth teem with arthropods; IDM stirs the eternal dance.
Golden light descends upon the mortal earth.
This is my ode to electronic music.
It’s great that you got to work with Mark Fell — maybe just as much that his remix sound comes close enough to yours that it almost just feels like another track. What was that collaboration for you? And sideproject, aka Adyo Pranowo?
In his remix, logos shifts from outward to inward. What was uncanny and eerie transforms into a deeper, more instinctual flow.We actually all met in Iceland for the first time last year when i performed at Smekkleysa with Bjork, and Mark and Rian were doing a residency in Reykjavik, so having them both contribute to Amalgamate feels quite special to me.
I sometimes ask people what they’re listening to — but what are you reading?
I love reading sci-fi, plus some non-fiction in the humanities and social sciences. I’d like to recommend three books I’ve been reading this year:
- 中国现代思想的起源 超稳定结构与中国政治文化的演变
The Origins of Modern Thought: The Evolution of Chinese Political Culture from the Perspective of the Ultrastable Structure, Volume 1 - 气的思想 中国自然观与人的观念的发展
The Thought of Qi: The Development of Chinese Views of Nature and Humanity(There is no official English translation available for this book.) - The Passion According to G.H.
Thanks, 33! More on that reading list soon.
https://svbkvlt.bandcamp.com/album/amalgamate
https://www.instagram.com/33emybw