“I’ve always had a special connection with the number 23,” Mexican artist Enrique Toussaint tells Apple Music about the title of his first EP. The collection distills some two years of work, largely in collaboration with musician and producer Wet Baes. “I wanted to know what turning 23 would reveal to me,” he continues. “I turned 23 in China, because I was studying in Shanghai, and there I got to know the ancient world of Asia and my own inner world. This music reflects the rebirth I experienced between the ages of 23 and 28.” Following the blinding string of singles such as “Honey”, these new songs explore an R&B terrain where sensuality and spirituality meet through sumptuous soundscapes full of ’70s-inspired rhythms and horn arrangements that echo what Roy Hargrove did for D’Angelo’s seminal Voodoo, a clear influence here. “Since I was a little kid, I always gravitated toward African American music,” he remembers. “It wasn’t the culture that I was born into, so I had to find all those things by myself.” In a scene where R&B and soul are still somewhat exoticised, Tuzeint revels in the genre with the passion of a mystic. “With these songs, I have reached a world where I can develop as an artist.” Learn more about 23 as he tells the story of it all, one song at a time. Intro “This is the key to the first door in this world. I put it together before a festival I played in Monterrey and it’s the first song I wrote for the project. A day before the show, I asked Alan Fajardo, an incredible trumpeter, to record something over my keyboard track. It was very spontaneous, very organic and natural. It’s a very minimalistic piece of music, but very deep at the same time.” Time Will Meet Everything “I wrote this after spending a day on the beach. I’ve always had the drive to grow musically, emotionally and spiritually every day. The idea behind the song is that everything will come in due time if you are where you need to be and follow your own path. When you surrender to a situation, you discover the purity of just being and flowing. The melody is like a mantra to me and the intro was inspired by Solange, who had a huge influence on this EP. Her music transformed me in a big way, especially with When I Get Home. After that, the journey starts very softly with the drums and the guitars.” Birdz in My Eyez “This is one of the songs I put together with D’Angelo in mind. He’s an artist I truly admire and one of my big inspirations. ‘Birdz in My Eyez’ has that classic touch that you can hear in his productions, with the horns and all that. I worked a lot with Wet Baes to get a drum sound that was loud but fat and heavy at the same time. The lyrics come from the idea of eyes as a portal to the soul. The birds represent the wings that allow you to fly and become who you really are.” Flava “I recorded the whole thing by myself pretty quick, but then spent some time with the mix, focusing on the rimshots in the drums, which play a double beat that feels kind of heavy. I love the flow it has and every time I listen to it, I imagine a slow and smooth dance, again with a Solange kind of vibe.” She Wanna Go “This one has a very ’70s mix. It’s a melody I had for a long time, something I would sing in the shower. When I put it together in the studio, I used a part from a different song for the intro. It’s the only one on the EP with an acoustic guitar, something of a Prince touch to my ears.” No Mo’ “This was the last one I wrote and it’s like a final landing. I felt that there was still a piece missing and I had been listening to Tyler, the Creator a lot, with all those changes and the little universes he creates that make the songs sound like movies or short stories. There’s a change in the middle of it, where there’s a crescendo with the synths, the drums and the vocals, and it changes the vibe of the song before it goes to a more real space. There are three distinct parts to it: a soul sounding beginning, the Tyler moment in the middle and an ending that sounds sadder but more real and pure at the same time. If the first track was the key to the entrance, this the key to the exit.”