Flock - Flock (2022)

Flock is a brand new collaboration between five leading musicians from London's open-minded jazz and experimental scenes: Bex Burch (Vula Viel), Sarathy Korwar, Dan “Danalogue” Leavers (Soccer96, The Comet Is Coming), Al MacSween (Maisha) and Tamar Osborn (Collocutor).

Gathering together at The Fish Factory in London Summer 2020, the approach was to try something fresh. “I wrote texts as scores for the session and the emphasis was on breathing and listening to each other,” explains Bex Burch. “Improvisation is composition in itself,” continues Burch, “so although the music was freely improvised, we sometimes chose to stay on form and rhythm, repeating melodies and groove. As Dan commented on the day, we ‘murmurated’. The expansive 13-minute piece ‘How Many Are One’ on the album is the perfect example, a collective following and leading as the music developed.”

Other tracks include the pulsing, searching opener ‘Expand’, the taught soundscape ‘Prepare To Let Go’ and the frenetic, urgent ‘Bold Dream’. At times widescreen and cinematic and at others more tense and claustrophobic, each Flock piece explores its own colour and mood.

“Some of the band had actually never met in person before the session. We played virtually together for the Boiler Room. So every moment in this process has been a new journey into the unknown. It goes to show that we were never in control even when we thought we were, and yet we made it. Everyone came, breathed and brought openness of heart, ears, lungs and wings.”

All pieces improvised by Bex Burch, Sarathy Korwar, Danalogue, Al MacSween and Tamar Osborn in response to texts by Bex Burch

Published by K7 Music Publishing, Metropolis, Bucks Music Group and BMG Music Publishing

Bex Burch: gyil, vibraphone, bass drum, shakers, bells, gong, snake drum, electronics
Sarathy Korwar: drums, tabla
Danalogue: fender rhodes, roland juno-60, upright piano, roland SH-09 bass synth
Al MacSween: prepared piano, piano, moog sub37
Tamar Osborn: bass clarinet, flute, soprano sax, EHX deluxe memory boy