Bex Burch

Biography by Paul Bowler

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 debut solo album, 'There is only love and fear' was released via Chicago avant-garde label International Anthem and named The Guardian's Contemporary Album of the Month. She has previously released music as part of post-punk band, ‘Vula Viel’, ‘Boing!’ with Leafcutter John, and the Strut-released band ‘Flock’, a cosmic, boundary pushing quintet with Tamar Osborn, Sarathy Korwar, Al MacSween and Danalogue. Burch also runs the label Vula Viel Records, the domestic music event, Kantine Musik, and has collaborated with influential artists like Peter Zummo, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Ben LaMar Gay, Dan Bitney and Macie Stewart.

Bex spent three years in Ghana, including an 18-month apprenticeship from 2008 in instrument-making with master gyil player Thomas Sekgura, a formative experience that gave her a deep-seated respect for the powerful Dagaare music as well as the confidence to pursue a path that reflected her own voice and the myriad strands and tastes of her personality. A restless, questing spirit has informed her career since, from the open-hearted collaborations of her constantly shapeshifting musical releases to the creation of a new xylophone, a non-traditional instrument she handmade under Jamie Linwood’s mentorship, tuning its harmonics to maximise the resonances she wanted to hear.

Bex’s solo album 'There is only love and fear' was the first release to spring from the ongoing practice of asking herself “what sounds do I like today?” and was recorded over thirty-two days of improvised sessions in the US with some of International Anthem’s finest musicians. The music she and the collective made oscillates between modes of quiet open-heartedness and powerful expression while emphasising deep listening and intuitive reaction. Domestic sounds dance around the recording while an extreme-weather siren brought about by a heavy storm during sessions initiated its own live-wire, of-the-moment response. Neorealist field recordings of the natural world encountered over its gestation period lend an autobiographical air to a subtly arresting, spiritually enriching suite of music.

Bex’s restless creativity and desire to embrace new musical challenges has seen her music straddle the divergent worlds of minimalism, avant-garde, post-punk, and improvisation with equal success. More solo and collaborative projects are being created all the time as Bex’s wide-eyed approach to improvisation continues to evolve and break new musical ground.

Beyond writing and performing music and running her expanding record label, Bex mixes, produces records, curates radio shows and runs ‘Kantine Musik’, a regular live music happening born of the quiet “tradition” of making music that brings people together, for each other. All of Bex’s work aims to celebrate excellence, the community and real connection through music.