Video of the Day: Bex Burch returns with new album ‘There is only love and fear’ and mini-documentary
Mike Flynn
Wednesday, October 4, 2023
The highly imaginative percussionist returns with an immersive new set of jazz-influenced soundscapes and songs recorded with leading musicians from the Chicago scene
Renowned progressive percussionist and soundscape artist Bex Burch – known for her propulsive trio Vula Viel – is set to make her debut on high-profile Chicago label International Anthem with her new album, There is only love and fear, that’s released on 20 October.
Burch, now based in Berlin, was invited to spend a month in the US by the label in the summer of 2022, where she brought her hand-made xylophone and immersed herself in the label’s creative community - listening to what it gave her, making field recordings and allowing the music to emerge from the collaborations and environments she encountered. The result is a series of freeflowing highly improvised tracks on what is her most jazz informed release to date.
Recorded in spaces as a storefront in Bridgeport, Chicago and a canyon in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, the album includes some of Chicago’s leading names such as Ben LaMar Gay, Macie Stewart, Anna Butterss, Mikel Patrick Avery, and Dan Bitney of Tortoise, all of whom Burch met for the first time in the moments before they played.
Burch performs selections of the music on three European dates, with one UK stop at Cafe OTO, London (20 October) plus King Georg, Cologne, Germany (27 October) and Jazz Brugge, Belgium (17 November).
Additionally to the album and tour a load of footage and photographs were taken by Burch's collaborators and hosts between Chicago and Los Angeles, and have been beautifully edited together into an illuminating There is only love and fear mini documentary by David Burkart, with interview footage shot in Berlin in 2023 by Fabian Brennecke.
For more info visit www.bexburch.com – and see the film below