Monday January 12 * 7pm * $15-25 * TICKETS
We are pleased to welcome percussionist & composer Bex Burch (Berlin) and friends, debuting a new work in progress piece, "as yet untitled" - a 60 minute piece for structured, improvisatory, messy minimalism, following up on of her critically acclaimed solo album There is only love and fear (International Anthem). Opening set of poems by John-Francis Quiñonez.
Whether combining the rhythmic timbres of wood, metal and audience claps or duetting with the atmospheric and elegiac echoed sounds of water dripping into a metal basin, Bex Burch is a composer, percussionist, instrument maker and improviser who emphasises space, repetition and aspects of chaos. These themes characterise an ongoing approach she describes as “messy minimalism”.
Burch’s critically acclaimed 2023 solo album, 'There is only love and fear' was released via Chicago’s International Anthem and named The Guardian's Contemporary Album of the Month. She runs the label, Vula Viel Records, the domestic music event, Kantine Musik, and has collaborated with influential artists including Thomas Sekgura, Leafcutter John as part of ‘Boing!’, Tamar Osborn, Sarathy Korwar, Al MacSween and Danalogue in ‘Flock’, Peter Zummo, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Ben LaMar Gay, Dan Bitney and Macie Stewart.
Bex completed an 18-month instrument-making apprenticeship in Ghana in 2008 with master gyil player Thomas Sekgura, a formative experience alongside her questing spirit which has informed her career since, from the open-hearted collaborations of her musical releases to the creation of a new xylophone she handmade under Jamie Linwood’s mentorship, tuning its harmonics to maximise the resonances she wanted to hear. – Bex’s music continues to evolve. More is to come as Bex’s wide-eyed approach continues to break new musical ground.
“powerful, delicate, moving, avant-garde and utterly, wonderfully accessible … A bold, affecting work that hits on levels micro and macro, There is only love and fear might just be a sonic masterpiece” - Jane Cornwall, Songlines ‘Top of World’ album ★★★★★
“Minimalism is usually cool, detached, frictionless and mathematical. The music made by percussionist Bex Burch is not any of these things. …this is minimalism that isn’t afraid to break into a sweat and get its hands dirty (quite literally, given that Burch actually builds her own instruments from scratch).” - Guardian ‘Contemporary Album of the month’ ★★★★
"I think we're kind of still levitating around here after Bex Burch's live session for us on Tuesday, it was just spectacular, really gorgeous." "yeah shall we just get her back, a constant thing in our life". - Tom Ravenscroft and Deb Grant, BBC 6 Music
“This is not more of the good stuff. This is a document of a musician searching for the next good stuff… the nuanced tone of the dialog fills the spectrum from agitatedly talkative to idly meandering to crisply succinct” Bandcamp ‘Best Jazz of the Month’